The Finest Blades in Azeroth
by Juffo
Summary: Short stories about the travels of a band of adventurers in the world of Azeroth. Despite this dont expect a great deal of huge battle scenes, but do expect some yuri relationships.
1. Inferno Anyone?

Generic Disclaimer: i dont own anything but the characters, they are mine and if you steal them... well i'd be pretty pleased i came up with something worth stealing actualy... wait no i'd be mad!

I appologise in advance for the characters lacking context and background, but the more stories i post the more you will get to learn about their habits pasts and how they feel about their companions. Also these stories are not in chronological order, you get them as i give them. If i anyone actualy wants to know something about the any of the characters just ask and i'll either tell you or if their lucky write a story about it. Finaly i'm not going to tell you the classes that any of the characters are because even though they arn't the elusive hero class they dont ridgedly fit into any specific one, but there basicaly in one or the other.

"You know I could get that started for you if you wanted." Tarena giggled with one hand over her mouth as Malorin and Annora both struggled to get the tinder lit.

"We want it lit, not obliterated." Annora looked up with a sly smile s the fire attempted to spark into life.

"Yeah, we remember last time you tried to light the fire." Malorin said pulling back from the fire and beginning to stroke her hair.

"Hey… that was an accident…" She pleaded with poorly masked laughter.

"No, that was entertainment." Annora burst into laughter and fell over sideways grasping her belly.

"You two are horrible." Malorin said getting up and walking away with her tongue poked out at the elf that had caused her such problems in the past.

Gretel looked up puzzled about the current topic of conversation. "What is all this about, it must have been before we met?" The troll asked before returning to mixing herbs in a small pestle and mortar that she kept for cooking occasions.

"Well we where having trouble lighting the fire, like we are now, then Tarena offered to start it for us, like she just did then." Annora propped herself back up and gestured towards the different people and objects as she spoke. "We took her up on it so she started the incantations and then the next thing you know… kabloom!" She continued throwing her hands in the air and allowing herself to fall over backwards.

"My hair caught fire… its still growing back…" Malorin said getting up and walking over to the troll.

"It didn't even get the fire started, just sorta fizzled and went out." Annora tucked her knees into her chest and craned her head around to look at Gretel with a slight smile.

"Alright everyone take cover I'm gonna try an light the fire…" The elf waved her hand over the bundle of wood while her leather clad human companion leapt for cover behind a log. Gradually she glared at the tinder devilishly and began to mutter in some ancient, demonic dialect. Her eyes blinked open, shining with infernal light, blazing gauntlets of flame erupted around her hands and she shuffled her feet into a side on position towards the target.

"Kya!" Tarena yelled and thrust her flame-encrusted hands towards the rock circle, which let off a small puff of smoke accompanied by a disappointing popping noise. Conversely a huge fit of laughter spewed from Gretel's direction as she almost fell off her seat.

"Um… wow…" Annora crept towards the fire on all fours watching out for the opportunity of stray explosions. "But you know, I think it might actually be on fire." Muttered the human as she began poking the innards of the fire with a stick. Gradually the wood spluttered into combustion, which resulting in a mild applause from all concerned.

"Malorin..." Gretel walked towards the glow trying to be a blaze and knelt down in front of it, placed her bowl on the ground and started to warm her hands. "How did you all meet each other?"

That's a bit out of the blue isn't it?" Annora smirked, putting her stick down and slinking back to one of the logs surrounding the fire. Everyone glared angrily at her for a reason that currently escaped her. "Oh come on!"

"Well... anyway, I suppose it would have been… oh almost a year ago now, the tavern in Goldshire." Malorin sat down across the fire from her trollish companion. "It was hardly a quiet night to start with but one person turned out to be a very talented sketch artist. There must have been twenty of us all completely off our rockers."

"That was back when you still drank." Annora said from the logs as Tarena took a seat behind Malorin.

"Yes, I've had enough to regret from spent nights and coin on naught but drink. Still this one man could draw a person's mirror image in mere seconds, then one thing led to another and the next mourning eleven of us…" Malorin pulled her legs into her chest and studied the growing flickers of light the fireplace was emitting.

"She can't remember." Annora leant forward and garishly whispered into Gretel's ear.

"Thank you Annora…" The only other human said with an annoyed tone in response to the interruption, removing a leather scroll case from her baggage and handing it to the elf behind her as she spoke. "Eleven of us woke up in a cave in the wetlands north of Iron Forge. We have all been friends ever since, usually keeping in contact by mail but sometimes we journey together for a while."

"Oh these are fantastic, where did you get them?" Tarena gasped, having removed several worn pieces of parchment from the case.

"You might assume I woke up with them, but I actually bought them off a trader in lakeshore." Malorin smiled one of her more evil smiles although as far as smiles go it could still inspire heroism in the meek.

"What are they?" Gretel inquisitively asked poking her head around the fire, which had grown large enough to impede her vision of the people on the other side of it. The eyes of the troll grew wide as the parchment was turned around to reveal a rather buxom and rather naked human girl, who bared a striking resemblance to the woman behind her, in an extremely lewd position involving a table, a chair, several onlookers and a bottle in the process of being emptied of its contents. In case there was any doubt, the words 'Annora bathes in milk' where written in the bottom right hand corner using an overly large script.

"How the hell did you get that?" Annora yelped as she fell backwards in response to the image of another high quality drawing of herself. This particular one demonstrated both her affinity for dancing and nigh inhuman flexibility as well as alcohols ability to make people misuse their talents, it was labelled 'good will towards men'.

"You can keep them to yourselves." Gretel turned away from the pictures making it clear with her tone of voice that she wasn't interested. "But I'm surprised that some one of your stature would… stoop to keeping naked pictures of your companions handy."

"Yes, why do you have naked pictures of me?" Annora clambered back over the log.

"Oh you know me… anything to sneak a peek at my fellow women." Malorin said with enough sarcasm to almost imply a double negative as she picked up the scroll case and held it out for Tarena to replace its contents.

"Well all you had to do was ask silly…" Having regained her seating Annora began to unfasten her leather jerkin.

"Oh really? Why didn't you say so?" Countered the holder of the scroll case with narrowed eyes and a grin confident of victory. Annora threw off her jerkin and raised the front of her cloth vest to around her neck so her friends might see the full glory of her full chest.

"Ha ha!" She bellowed without lowering her clothes and Malorin ducked behind her arm. "Can't call my bluff."

"Wow… these drawings are so life like…" Tarena raised one of the pictures into the air so she could compare the real and drawn breasts.

"Can some one find Nunu and make sure she's bringing back food?" Gretel silenced the camp with a yell over the growing noise of competing voices. "She's been gone for hours and I'm hungry." She continued after recomposing herself and watched as cheesecake bolted into a position next to the fire, promptly planting its mechanical behind on the ground with several small squeaks.

"Is it just me or is that thing as mad as its creator?" Malorin asked whilst gazing at the through the flickering streaks of fire at the small creature. Oddly enough the squirrel seemed quite insulted about the remark of its sanity.


	2. Elves, Trolls and Cheesecake

Gretel had been on her feet, skulking around the forest, for nearly and wasn't entirely sure she had lost the sentinels but the opportunity for a nice calming bath was to good to pass up. The glade looked empty, and what little of tracking she knew told her no one had been here for a while. Perfect, nothing but the quite bubble of the hot spring and the mutter of woodland critters. She let out a sigh, removed her top and skirt and slipping into the soothing waters.

It wasn't long after this that the troll quietly passed into a well-earned sleep. Quite to her surprise she awoke with pair of dull lights glaring in her eyes. "You smell like cactus apple." The lights playfully exclaimed. "I love cactus apple."

"Ehh… what… who is it?" Gretel murmured, begrudgingly rubbing the slumber from her eyes.

"Its Nunu!" The set of lights ecstatically yelled before forming themselves into the vague shape of an inverted and grinning night elf head. Gretel now took a moment to assess the situation. She was currently sitting in a hot spring with a night elf, hanging upside down from a rope, inches from her face with her equipment, and worse all her clothes, were on the other side of the water.

'_Come on think Gretel or your dead.'_ She ran through her head although her train of thought was quickly interrupted by blushing visible even through the blue skin of this troll, which was the resulted of receiving a peck on the mouth.

"Mmm… taste like cactus apple to." Nunu said licking her lips.

Gretel edged as far back as she could go with as much of a shocked look as she could manage. "Ah… gotta go." She said spinning around and clambering out of the water, then bolting into the forest, her feet pounding in time with the audible thud-thud of her heart. _'Oh no… I left my stuff behind…'_ Was the realization that suddenly went careening through her mind.

Sneaking had never been this trolls forte but she did her best to make it around to the other side where she had left her clothes. She peered through a bush to see that all traces of her hunter had disappeared. _'I really need to get some sleep, I have to be imagining this, and it's just way to weird to be real.'_ She reasoned, allowing her heart to gradually slow.

"What cha' thinking, heya?" An elven voice whimsically taunted from behind her and Gretel's tortured heart almost leapt out her mouth seeing Nunu dressed in the white top and skirt that were lying by the waters edge only a moment ago. "I like it, it goes with my hair."

The troll was nearing the end of her tether, the stuff didn't matter anymore, it was time to get away from this clearly insane elf. She placed one foot behind her and pivoted on it, which allowed her to immediately break into a run. It was difficult but she managed to sprint at full speed through the forest, leaping age worn logs and ducking branches until eventually her breath was spent. "Damn crazy elves… why cant… they… just leave me… alone." Gretel spluttered between heavily drawn gasps.

Despite it being nigh inaudible Gretel managed to make out the distinct sound of the elf speaking again. "Meow." The white haired stalker purred before leaping out of the bushes and impacting forcefully on her target. The pair was sent tumbling literally head over heels until Gretel lay flat on her back, pined firmly to the ground.

Nunu watched the troll struggle in vein for a few seconds before opening her mouth and licking the blue skinned face from the base of her jaw, over her lips and up to a blood red and hermetically sealed eye. This was the final straw for Gretel, enough was enough, between getting stranded here, chased by sentinels, giant spiders and finally fleeing naked through the forest with a cannibal hot on her heels, she just gave in to unconsciousness.

It was some time later that Gretel awoke and it was an enormous relief to be staring into the forest canopy. Despite the faint chill of night that had descended she was still alive and that was a definite bonus to any situation. Her lungs opened and tasted the damp and heavy air of a spring-side forest night with one enormous breath. There was something comforting, even surreal in her current settings, the cold had no bite to it and the forest floor was glowing with dull warmth.

Far from her previous actions, the troll let out only a low moan as she felt a tongue be placed on the skin below her left breast. Slowly the tongue began to move, and sent a quiver down Gretel's left leg as it rose over her curve and tasted her nipple. "Hey that tickles…" She said with a slight giggle and eyes tightly shut.

"Good happy mourning blue." That all to familiar voice mused quickly before continuing its course along the troll's skin towards her mouth. As the elven tongue reached its goal Gretel slowly grasped the sides of Nunu's head before opening her mouth and tasted the inside of this insane woman. Remarkably Nunu tried to pull away but even she was too shocked by the tongue probing her mouth to use her full strength.

They where sharing a myriad of tastes and sensations, concealed by their joined lips. Gretel's heart was racing faster than she had ever felt it beat before as she finally let female elf pull away. "I like your taste…" Nunu rested her head high on the blue chest briefly before springing strait upright. "But your pointy bits hurt a little."

Gretel moved her hand to the side of her mouth where her small tusks protruded out the corners of her lips. "This is all some crazy dream isn't it?" She asked quietly as her heart calmed a little after the kiss. Nunu just nodded her head ecstatically making the wide grin almost imperceptible. "Nunu, why aren't you wearing an clothes?"

"Well, you no wear clothes and when I first want to play you ran away. Now I no wear clothes to and you like playing!" She explained with all of her prior enthusiasm and continuing to nod intermittently.

'_Yep, definitely a dream.'_ Gretel raised one arm and placed it on Nunu's shoulder before hoisting herself face to face with the elven breasts. _'What the hell, it's a dream.'_ Nunu burst into laughter and fell over backwards as the troll's tongue gently caressed her chest. Gradually Gretel's eyes grew heavy and she passed into sleep, her head perched in the bosom of another woman.

'_Mmm… this is a nice pillow, soft and warm but where is my blanket…'_ Gretel sprung to her feet with the stark realization that she had in fact spent the night with that elf and frantically began searched the makeshift camp for her clothes.

Finding her top carefully folded she snatched it up and attempting to wrestle it over her head before feeling something land on her shoulder. Gretel peeked her head out of the collar to see a small mechanical squirrel starring her in the face. "I made you a squirrel." Nunu excitedly yelped dropping down from a tree branch. "I call him cheesecake." She continued in a whisper.

"You made me a squirrel?" Gretel quizzically asked having temporarily forgotten the vendetta between horde and alliance. "And called it cheesecake?" To which Nunu responded by another show of exaggerated nodding. "About what happened last night…"

"We played…" The elf spun around and leapt into a low branch, despite the weight of her metallic armour and hung by her legs from the tree.

"But I didn't want to…" Pleaded the blue skinned troll as she turned her back and slid into her skirt. "Sit down Nunu." She continued taking a seat on a log and patting the place next to her gently. Nunu flicked herself up onto her branch and leapt through the air, landing gracefully on her hands before catapulting herself into the seat the troll had touched.

"Yes?" The elf crossed her legs and turned her smiling face towards the troll with both hands placed on her knee.

"Why are you doing all this? Why are we doing any of this?" Gretel said more to the squirrel that raced into her lap than to Nunu.

"I like to play… don't you?" She reached over and patted the small machine, which seemed to be thorough enjoying the attention.

"There have been times… I didn't think I was actually doing any of those things!" Gretel gently let her head come to rest on Nunu's shoulder.

"Shhh…" Nunu quietly reached across her body and cupped the troll's cheek in her hand. "You gonna scare cheesecake…"

"Nunu…" Gretel said uncomfortably as she began to feel heart beat in he her ears again.

"I will take you to crossroads." The elf plainly said in a flat, monotone that seemed to defy everything Gretel knew about her. "Its hoard territory from there on."


	3. Parental Sacrifice

Essentialy this is for dark dragon 00, who reviewed this, they asked for more and i cant deny my public... even if it is just one person...

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The air of the great library was as it usually was, thick with the musty scent of aged parchment and ancient books and the fire was contributing a heavy flickering glow to the archaic mood. Slowly a feminine hand wrapped the end of its fingers around a tome and drew it from its position on the shelf. Her legs moved quietly inside the soft linen of her dress as she allowed herself to fall into the overly grand chair she had selected earlier that evening.

'_The tale of my mothers most grand adventure…'_ Malorin calmly thought as she worked the tip of her nail under the cover and pried it open with satisfying ease. _'How many nights have I whittled away in your pages, and now the end of your story begins…'_

"Are you ready Apriana?" Devon leant over and placed one hand on the human's metallic pauldron.

"I was born ready Tauren." She replied with an undue amount of spite in her tone.

"It does not do well to be arrogant, this person is unlike anything either of us have faced before." He almost pleaded with a slight stomp of his hoof. "You and your hunters may have faced warlocks before however this being has the power of most terrible magics you cannot comprehend!"

"You would do well not to underestimate my troops, I think it might be you who are unprepared." Apriana shrugged his hand off her shoulder and took a step forward. "It is time…"

"On your head be it Paladin."

'_What does the Tauren know that he isn't telling her? I've met warlocks and even the strongest could not stand against such a force.'_ Malorin shifted in her chair, unable to find a fully comfortable position. _'Just what is beyond those doors?'_

There was a loud, eerie groan from the ancient hinges as the massive oaken doors swung open, revealing a huge stone throne room. On this lavish seat sat but a frail night elf, whose eyes shone with all the crimson fury of hell.

"Oh this is wonderful!" She squealed with delight. "I thought I had finished your line when I murdered your father but it seems you live on to continue my entertainment." She continued, almost writhing in her chair.

"I am Devon Stormhide and you shall not escape this place alive!" Devon yelled as he took a step forward and held his fist out in defiance.

"Shut your mouth warlock, I have not travelled over seas and mountains to listen to this banter, I've come to assure your destruction." Snapped Apriana as she slung her sword off her back and strait into her hands.

"Devon you disappoint me… your father came on his lonesome and managed for quite some time. You bring me humans who would fight with their faith when they would do better to wield the magics of old."

"I think you'll find our tenacity a little more than you can handle." The Paladin pointed her sword at the target and a half dozen bolts shot past her through the air. In defence the warlock extended her arm and instantly the bolts fell from their path, encased in a single shard of ice.

"Tenacity I can handle." She said with a grin while her hand twisted slightly with a green glow. There was a short gargling gasp as a blade of grass from between stones transfigured into an enormous rose bush, which had impaled an archer as it grew. "Perhaps you should send the flower to his family, but it's not nice to take them off graves now is it?"

"You're a monster!" Apriana yelled at the sight of the stem protruding from the helmet's eye socket, which bore a blood red bloom. "Charge!"

"I'll show you monsters little girl!" The elf thrust her hands into the air and dozens of earthen hands erupted from the ground, gripping onto the running feet of her adversaries. "I think this is something Devon might appreciate more than you though." She giggled spitefully while several rotting Tauren corpses clambered their way out of the stone.

"You treacherous harpy!" Devon screamed at the sight of his ancestors brought back as undead.

"They fought so well it seemed such a pity to waist them." The warlock continued to giggle to herself as the last person was pulled to the ground by the grasping hands.

"I will see you suffer for this betrayal!" Devon slammed his hands into the ground and broke free of the spell. Leaping towards the first corpse his axe came easily off his back and flew in an upward crescent that carved through rotting flesh from loin to skull.

"Betrayal was what you knew I would do to your friends Devon." She squealed ecstatically as her hands conjured an effervescent shadow that grew larger with a frightening speed.

"There is nothing you can do to me witch!" Apriana sprung out of the final hands binding her to the ground and embedded the jagged peak of her sword through a now faltering undead.

"Darkness comes Devon, embrace it." An enormous crack sounded, so loud that it could have split dimensions erupted from the elven warlocks hands and shadow engulfed the room.

"Never!" He screamed, letting his axe fly from his hands and it spun into the air. There seemed to be a moment where time slowed to the point where Devon and Apriana could see the blade slowly inching its way through the last remnants of space separating it from flesh. There was a heavy thudding sound as its keen edge dug into the side of her ribs and sliced its way through her right lung, ending its path in her heart.

Apriana let out a less than elegant yelp as she brought her sword down onto the last of the undead's heads. "Its over men… she is vanquished."

"They cannot answer you… their souls belong to me now." The disembodied warlocks voice announced. With a blinding flash of light her maimed body was healed again and on its feet. "Come now Devon if things where so easy I would have died long ago.

"You!" The Paladin screamed as she charged towards the reincarnated body. "The souls of my friends shall rest in piece!" She brought her sword down in a deadly diagonal arc, strait through the elf's torso.

"It's no use my dear." The warlock said from her once again healed body. "I will always rise again. Even if you do defeat me I will exact my revenge on your lineage." She continued in a calm tone, leaning back slightly to avoid the strike to her head.

"Shut up and let me kill you!" Apriana swung her sword down into the elf, who merely stepped aside and the blade dug into the ground. Another blow was supposed to land across the woman's shoulders but the elven dexterity seemed to much for human blades to match.

"I wonder what your daughter's soul will taste like, but she can't die until she has her own spawn of corse." The steel of her enemy sliced under the leg she lifted off the ground moments before. "Is winning really worth that curse."

"Apriana is right Cloudstrider." Devon stood in an intimidating pose holding his father's enchanted hammer and shield. "You talk to much."

"Now Devon you shouldn't talk to your aunty like that." The warlock said from beneath the blade of the sword before finally striking out with her foot. The blow landed squarely on Apriana's chest and sent the paladin flying across the room.

"You left our family when you embraced the demonic arts." The Tauren felt the fur on his back prick up as he unleashed a magical blast into the elf, which seemed to faze her a little.

"This abomination is your aunt?" Apriana struggled back onto her feet and shambled back towards the two glaring opponents.

"We can talk about this later." Devon yelled as he released another bolt of magical energy that sent his target reeling back a short distance. Human steel followed up this attack in a violent horizontal arc, which cleanly severed the target's head before its blinding reattachment. Another slice flew vertically threw an elven arm and then circled for a secondary pass resulting in a deep split through a delicate chin, mouth and nose.

"No lets talk about it now!" Cloudstrider commanded with none of her previous playfulness as another blast of mystical energy found its mark. And then there was silence.

"Devon… I can't move…" Apriana muttered without moving her jaw as her enemy picked up her arm and reconnected it with her body.

"Hold on." With his Tauren strength, Devon struggled against the constraints of the witchcraft until it shattered around him like a pane of glass through which he leapt forward, hammer in fist.

Snatching the sword from the immobile paladins hands, the warlock took a spinning step forward and allowed the blade to fly around at the length of her arm. Mere seconds once more seemed like an eternity as the result of the joust caught up with the two, and then it was over. Devon slid face first to the floor onto a plush cushion made from his spiled intestines in a slow display of agony at Apriana's feet. He was still alive but the wound was fatal, the last of the Stormhides lay dying on the floor and her blade dripped with his blood.

"You know Apriana…" Cloudstrider sat down on the back of her vanquished foe and planting the hilt of the sword on the ground between them. "I would rather have not killed all these people."

"Your kind knows nothing of compassion for life, finish me and be done with your gloating!" She watched with a mixture of hatred and grief that had begun to boil into an enormous rage.

"Your men meant nothing, but there was a time when these furry fellows cared for me and some lingering semblance of my former self is sorry to see them go." Her elven hand reached out and softly stroked the base of the Tauren skull behind the ear, which forced Devon to attempt to move slightly.

"You will rot in hell wench of daem…" Apriana yelled in a growingly familiar tone of rancour before being interrupted.

"Wench am I?" Cloudstrider sounded rather shocked at this statement before returning to her previous playful mood and running her tongue along the bloodied end of the sword. The paladin stood helpless as her captor placed her hands gently on her neck and pulled their lips together. The excruciating pain of unwanted passion flooded through the metal clad muscles while her tongue was forced to taste the crimson flow of lifeless liquid. "Some of my blood… some of his. Sin enough for the both of us and plenty to spare."

For a moment they where allowed to be separate again as the warlock said her piece. Then they kissed once more, but this kiss tugged at the very soul of the holy warrior until the tug became more powerful and eventually her soul was wrenched through her lips and into the blasphemous elf.

All Devon could hear was the collapse of a limp body to the ground beyond the throbbing of pain in his gut. None of this was made better when he was flipped onto his back or the jagged landing of a woman onto his wound. He let out a feeble scream whish only seemed to bring pleasure to the grinning face looming above him in his blurry vision.

"I swallowed her soul Nephew… isn't it just fantastic!" She exclaimed with the enthusiasm of a schoolgirl explaining the pleasure of her first carnal bliss. "But what should I do with her offspring? There is still her blood out there in the world; maybe she'll come after me some day?" A short but exotic moan escaped her lips as she placed her hands on the Tauren's chest.

"These paladins are truly delicious…" Cloudstrider gave a slight groan with the continuing pleasure of Apriana's soul being within her and instinctively rocked her hips with the motion, sending a small spurt of blood into the air as the sliced flesh she straddled tore a little more. "Its like nothing on this world."

To Devon the world grew dim and the pain began to seem distant, he was leaving this world to join in failure with his ancestors. But light burst into his flesh once more and his aunt was sent sprawling across the room with the explosion of life the reinvigorated his wounded body. "Today!" He announced in a booming voice that echoed with the strength of hundreds of men as he rose to his feet. "Inuet Cloudstrider, Shaman of Thunderbluff, blasphemous warlock and my kin shall perish by the wrath of her ancestors!"

Each step he took towards her the earth shook and the sun shone brighter. The wind blew harder and the clouds parted and with their final act on this world the liberated ghosts of Stormhide flew from Devons body and enveloped the warlock's soul and tore it to oblivion. And so he survived to tell his tale of triumph and the valiant sacrifice of men and souls.

_'So that's how it happened… She gave more than her life… She gave her soul to fight evil…'_ Malorin closed the book and cuddled up with it, finally having found a comfortable niche for her back. Then in no time at all, she fell asleep and dreamt of her own adventures to come.


	4. Custard Covered

Gretel clung tightly onto Malorin's left arm as she received a huge number of callous looks drove into her skull from the surrounding townsfolk. Many of them had never seen a troll before and knew only the tales of raging berserkers from the great wars between men and orc. Compounding this was the massive stone parapets and towers of Stormwind castle which closed in on her and made her shrink further onto the toned arm.

"Nunu, can you tell Gretel I'm starting to loose feeling in my hand?" Malorin calmly said with a slight smile causing the elf to stop dancing down the street as she was previously doing.

"You know I'm not entirely sure we should trust someone of her sanity to translate for us." Annora took a led by half a step and sarcastically commented as Nunu whispered into an ear in perfect trollish, which she knew for some inexplicable reason.

"Sorry Malorin?" The troll gently let her grip go a little, looking up at Malorin for reassurance that was granted by a comforting smile.

"Well at least she's learning quick." Annora took Nunu's hand and threw her down the street which set her into a bounding dance again.

"Quickly Annora… quickly. If we're going to teach her lets teach her correctly." A finger extended itself before shaking from side to side.

"Ohh poo you… well anyway I can understand her being a bit scared, imagine us just taking a stroll through Ogrimmar!" She threw her arms wide into the air for some pathetic attempt at emoting disaster.

"Annora code twenty three." Malorin gave a slight, playful smile as she stared off ahead.

"Twenty three? What are you talking about?" Suddenly Annora spotted Nunu just down the street in hasty preparations for an energetic raid on a pastry shop. "Oh damn it." She continued before rushing after the trouble on legs.

Malorin gracefully freed her arm from Gretel's weakened grasp, draped it across her shoulders and nestled the troll gently against her side. Nunu on the other hand thrust her steel plated fist into a small display and clamped it firmly into half a cake, which was then withdrawn in such a manner as to spread the other half of the cake evenly over three out of four walls and Annora.

"Hey put that down Nunu!" They heard from just out of eye shot as Annora struggled to keep Nunu even mildly under control. Following this the elf bounded out of the store, quickly trailed by Annora who became the unwilling recipient of an airborne custard tart to the face. Slowly the custard coloured girl pulled a piece of pastry off her face to reveal a smile that looked like it had been shattered with a hammer and then put back together in exactly the wrong way. The cackling giggle head butting into her brain from the tormentor did little to keep blades sheathed.

"Nowa wanna pway?" Nunu quietly asked in the perfect imitation of a child as Annora lurched several steps closer.

"Yeah…" She manically whispered in response before lunging forward in a wild arc towards her targets collar bone. Instants later there was the clink of steel on steel as the daggers tip glanced harmlessly off the giant metal paddle of a sword which Nunu kept on her back. Elven hands clasped themselves onto Annora's flanks and within moments she was sent spinning strait up into the air only to be caught on her way back down.

Nunu held Annora above her head with two hands grasping into her back and as much as her captive struggled, her balance remained perfect. "Nunu wins!" She squealed, allowing her harsh voice to cycle through a half dozen tones.

"Damn it let me down!" Annora twisted in an attempt to glare at anything that seemed appropriate however this was sharply interrupted as Nunu leapt onto a single toe and spun in a pirouette.

"Nunu wins! Nunu wins! Nunu wi…" She continued to yell before sharply freezing and allowing her enthusiasm to instantly evaporate. Annora to had undergone a sudden change of mood from furious rancour to shock when she heard her flailing knife hand connect with something soft and arm like. "Waaaaaaahhh!" Nunu cried as she dropped Annora and bolted over to Malorin and Gretel. Upon arrival though she became slightly pre-occupied, however, with which of the two ladies to ask for help and she just stood in front of them teary eyed, holding her arm and sticking her lower lip out.

"Sorry Nunu… I'm so sorry." Annora said as she clambered off the ground and ran after the girl she had wounded.

"Oh Nora's sorry." Nunu turned around having forgotten the dagger protruding from both sides of her forearm. "Lets be the bestest friends!" She continued and threw her arms around the confused human in a smothering hug.

"Uh… Nunu?" The recipient stammered in confusion.

"I bet custard covered Nora tastes like good yummy." Nunu pulled back her head and made an attempt to lick Annora's face but promptly felt herself pushed back.

"Nunu, your arm?" The elf's arm was held up in front of her so she could see for herself the crimson blood dripping over her blue grey skin from the wound which still held the vicious blade. Nunu took a short glance at it before letting out another of her short and equally vicious cackles.

"No Malorin I want the one with a jagged blade." Malorin reminisced as she walked up and examined the wound, having already take note that Gretel was slightly unsettled at the sight of blood. "Hey Nunu it's a polar bear!" She pointed towards an ally and the night elf's head swiftly followed before slowly returning its gaze her to her now dagger free arm.

"Well I do, you know, use it to kill things with." Annora stared at the Malorin as she worked the slight glow of magic into the burbling wound before bandaging it roughly. Then an odd noise of scampering metal sounded through the group as Gretel's mechanical squirrel scaled Nunu's back and planted itself onto her shoulder.

"What is it me wittle Cheesecake?" The first half of Nunu's sentence suffered from the harsh grinding of multiple tones as it usually did when she became excited swiftly followed by a slight, cheesecake inspired daze. It whispered seemed to whisper something in her ear, which only managed to confuse Annora and Malorin as they both knew it couldn't talk. Nunu flung her sword off her back in a wild arc and span around to see a hooded figure with a knife to Gretel's throat that had been attempting to abduct her before the squirrel warned its friends. "You're stealing my troll!" Nunu pointed the jagged end of her blade towards the hooded figure as she screamed.

"Trolls are an enemy of the alliance, come any closer and I'll slit her throat."

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Stay tuned next time when i finish this story 


	5. I Represent Temptation

Just a short chapter today, i'll finish it off real soon for you guys... Also i'd like to know which chapter has been your favourite so far... just to help talor my writing style so its more appealing to the fans.

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Slowly the blue glow of teleporting magic engulfed the hooded figure and it was gone, taking Gretel with it, before any of the three women had any real time to think about the situation. They where left stunned and barely able to stand from the shock of this abduction however they where brought out of their stupor by the ageless rasping voice one of them dreaded from the past.

"What a predicament…" Its patronising tone mouthed towards Malorin.

"Hello Janus…" She replied, barely able to mask her malcontent about his sudden appearance. "What brings you out at this overly convenient moment?"

"We might never have seen eye to eye my dear, but I have come to help you in these troubled times." Janus took several steps forward and smiled warmly up to the paladin that towered over his small frame.

"You can get my troll back?" A pair of elven hands shot out, spun Janus around to face their owner and raised him up to her head height as she spoke.

"While Nunu is very enthusiastic I think she speaks for all of us in wanting our friend back before something bad happens." Malorin encouraged Nunu to put the man back down but mainly kept her eyes trying to gauge Annora's emotions.

"And I will do my utmost to aid you in every way dear; however there will be a cost, there is always a cost." He broke his gaze and hung his head, obviously unpleased of what he had to say.

"Who is this guy? Some sort of mercenary?" Annora proclaimed, shoving Nunu out of the way who went sprawling comically into a wall.

"Just let me do the talking please…" Malorin gave her friend an unpleasant look before turning back to Janus. "Since when did I ever have to pay you for favours?"

"No you misunderstand me dear, I do not speak of a price for my services… more a metaphorical cost of your acceptance. After all I wouldn't want you walking into this with your eyes held shut." Janus plastered a smirk across his face to ark his enjoyment of speaking in riddles.

"Alright…" Malorin sighed. "What is the price I must pay for accepting your help?"

"Innocent lives my dear… innocent lives." He calmly leered as Annora wandered off to help Nunu off the ground.

"I don't think I understand, or have you become a necromancer while I have been gone?" Malorin neared the end of her considerable tether and her eyes began to light up with minute sparkles of anger.

"Let's sit down shall we dear?" Janus meandered over to a small bench chair that lay on the side of the street and sat down.

"Ugh…" She groaned as she wandered after him. "Do you have to keep calling me that? And can you cut to the point I have a friend in danger?"

"Sorry Malorin… When we where young and the fires of war still raged on there was a group of orcs captured near here. Do you remember us going to their hangings together?" He said with whimsical reminiscence of a memory he clearly enjoyed.

"Yes, they where caught pillaging a caravan." Malorin leant onto him slightly with the dying embers of the playfulness the pair used to share.

"Did you ever ask for proof? Did anyone?" Janus continued without resisting her lean.

"Well…" She started before being sharply cut off.

"Which brings me to my point… Your friend is going to be executed for crimes against the Alliance. Obviously the charges are false but it will bring the people together and united under one banner the ignorant become stronger. There is nothing evil about this injustice, merely giving up one life for the greater good. If you ask for my help people will die and your friend's name will be cleared, but there will be no scapegoat and the people will falter ever so slightly. Are you prepared to pay that price?"

Malorin sat and thought about her memories, how much joy she got from knowing that there where less orcs in the world and how wrong that view seemed now. How her newest friend was probably trapped in a dungeon somewhere awaiting her death and their best chance for saving her was playing tricks with her mind. How she was a paladin like her other before her and had been taught to make difficult decisions like this one.

"I only have one option don't I? The painful one?" She hung her head low before awkwardly lurching into an upright position. "I can't let more people die for my mistake of bringing her here."

"I see… You are a very strong woman Malorin, I hope that you are strong enough…" Janus stepped away to leave the woman once more alone. Sensing this Annora jogged over to her friends side with Nunu quickly in pursuit.

"Who was that guy Mal… Creepy?" She said placing a supporting hand on Malorin's shoulder.

"He's… my fiancé." Malorin said without a small amount of spite. "Come on I have to find a way to get Gretel out of this."


	6. Those Little Hooks

Annora rested her troubled head in her pillow; she was alone with all her friends trying to find a way to rescue Gretel. Malorin had left to seek an audience with higher powers to try and secure her peaceful release, an act that seemed to have little hope. Nunu on the other hand had decided that the mechanical squirrel would have an excellent idea where to go and swiftly set off after that.

"So that leaves me here… unable to do anything…" She thought aloud as her eyes ran over the wood grain in a large oak ceiling beam. For the first time in months she placed her hand on her head and peeled off the leather cap she usually wore. It had been so long since Annora had been able to run her hands through her ratty brown hair the feeling sent shivers down her spine. But the awkward feeling of uneasiness and vulnerability began to take hold and she replaced the cap. Annora hated her head.

When she was only a young girl growing up in the bowels of this city there where never any friends and now lying with her face in a pillow and no one to talk to reminded her of those times. She had known her father for a while but he seemed to see her as more of a chore than a daughter and Annora was glad when he died in the war. However things only got worse as she was forced onto the street, because unlike the other orphans charities didn't like Annora and her head.

So Annora stole things; small things at first in the name of survival. However as time went on and things didn't improve, the developing you girl was forced lower into degradation. She was only thirteen when she killed a person, stabbed them in the back of the neck and her innocent victim was still making a spluttering gurgle as Annora made off into the night with her gold pouch.

Those had been bad times and she would have done anything to survive but then one night she met Malorin in Goldshire. She stopped stealing, she stopped drinking, she stopped killing people, it was like someone flicked a switch and she became a different person.

"Now I'm alone again… even if it's just for a bit…" Her eyes scanned the roof for something other than the plaster clad thatch to look at but didn't find anything so she decided to just shut them instead. Trying to ease her nerves Annora laid her left hand on her chest and gently groped herself to little success. "I need a drink…"

She sauntered solemnly downstairs and into the front area of the tavern before draping herself over the counter, lazily demanding a pint of whatever will get her drunk the fastest. Out of the corner of her eye, past a small group of hopefuls she spots someone familiar go past in the street and with a scattering of several coins she is off after them.

"Hey!" She yells as she closes in the distance and Janus turns around.

"Yes my lady?" The small man gracefully replied.

"You where the one talking to Mal right?" Annora talks in a hurry as she catches her breath a little and he nods politely. "You where offering to save Gretel right?"

"That I was, however our dear Malorin decided that the price that had to be paid was to great." He explained in a miraculously unpatronising manor.

"Well what if I hired you instead? How much did you want?"

"As I explained to our mutual friend its not so much what I am to be paid as how many people she is accepting that I have to kill. However if you are to save her any grief this must of corse remain our little secret. Additionally I already know that you have no qualms about letting a few or possibly a dozen throats be slit by your command so might I ask a… special favour as well?" Janus spoke quickly, it would have been hard for any person to follow and Annora seemed lost until a smirk crept onto his face at the end of her short speech.

"Wait… no… what… Oh you little perv." She stammered, finally figuring out everything he had just said.

"I am as mortal as any man in more ways than one and I only asking this favour in that hopeful regard."

"Umm… aren't you and Mal engaged?" Annora's voice was shrill and worried, desperately searching for a way out of having to grant this favour. Inside she somehow felt that if she turned him down he would still help but behind that there was another voice. A niggling voice that sunk its hooks into her brain _'Do it'_ it said _'If you don't he will go away and you will never see Gretel again.'_

"That is true, however what love there once may have been evaporated long ago. We have grown distant and I do not judge her for any action she chooses to take, the same way she does not judge me. Though we are both bound by our words neither of us wish to hold the other back."

'_You've slept with men for less, even mere copper and a night in a bed.'_

"What if she finds out?" She pleaded, trying to get him to release her from having to grant this favour.

"I doubt it would be a shock to my betrothed that you are human enough to sleep with another, who it is matters not in her eyes." His voice reacted instantly to hers and became a comforting whisper.

'_If you don't you are murdering Gretel.'_

"I don't have a choice do I?" Annora hung her head in defeat.

"There is always choice, the real question is do you have the strength to do what needs to be done?" They both knew what was going on and Annora was powerless to stop it.

"I…" She grit her teeth together and her arm shot out and dug its fingers into his shoulder involuntarily. "I'm not Malorin… I know what is right but… I…" Janus smiled unflinchingly even though her nails where drawing his blood "I accept…"


	7. Number Six

Whoops... due to a mix up when I posted this it was missing the bottom three lines. Also I'm sorry that these stories have been so short but what with uni exams and such I've not had a huge amount of time. Also as with questions asked they shall be answered, I will start writing the follow up about how Gretel was rescued (Although as a technicality I already knew and reviewers have no actual input into what happens in the story, just the order I tell it in.Otherwise I would be breaking rules and no one wants that).

* * *

The circle was no more than five meters wide, with a large pentagram drawn in a powdered white substance across it. Various runes adorned the area within and around creating a wholly demonic feel to the small forest clearing they had spent the past few nights in. Only recently had Tarena discovered the incantations and rites of summoning and binding demons and she had decided it was time they where put into practice.

Malorin however was entirely opposed to this idea but had been out voted and decided to vent her frustration by becoming the self acclaimed inter-dimensional police force in charge of making sure whatever came through this gate stayed in line. None of the rest of the group felt particularly happy about having a demon hang around with them but they reasoned that it could always be banished if they didn't like it. So all in all the general consensus was that it was worth a shot and would probably be a bit of fun regardless.

"So how much longer is this gonna take Tarena?" Annora asked from her position on top of a log at the sidelines of the summoning circle.

"Hey, hey now… I'm almost done so just hold onto your panties…" The elf poured the last of the powder in her hand into the shape of one final rune in the middle of the circle.

"Pfft… you should know I don't wear panties, there for those upper class snobs…" She replied turning her gaze towards Nunu, who was sleeping in a quiet ball suspended in a branch above them. "And Mal… who's… not a snob." She continued as Malorin gave her a slight nod and a warm smile.

"Hey what about me?" Tarena's voice pleaded with Annora as her feet took positions at the base of the circle.

"I thought you stopped? Didn't you get those rashes 'cos they're going up and down so fast?" Her voice jaunted in a playful tone.

"And as hard as I tried I just couldn't break your record."

"Can we just get on with this?" Interrupted Gretel, who was getting as flustered about the topic of promiscuity as she usually did, in an annoyed but shy tone.

Tarena and Annora looked at each other for a few second before turning towards the troll and announcing in perfect synchronisation "Don't worry girl we've got plenty of time, we can get dirty with you later." Shortly after which they both burst into a small fit of laughter.

"Hey… No… That's…" Gretel quietly tried to retort from underneath her blushing cheeks before being interrupted abruptly.

"Hahehehe ouuu… that tickles little cactus apple!" A voice from the trees exclaimed loud enough to stun all the people below.

"Well Nunu's enjoying her nap… whatever its about…" Tarena placed her feet at the bottom end of the circle she had drawn and extended her hands outwards in preparation for weaving magic.

"Hey Mal want to go push Nunu out of the tree?" Annora asked with a devilish smile.

"I think she'd land on the circle and then we'd have to stand around for ages again while Tarena redrew it." She replied, being the only person who noted that Gretel was blushing heavily and probably had known exactly what Nunu was talking about.

"Aight lets do this!" The elven warlock yelled as flames began to erupt out of the runic symbols on the ground. Slowly she built up her magics and the flames leapt higher, entrancing her friends with a dazzling lightshow of incandescent demonology, except Nunu who slept peacefully in the branches above. Then with one final effort a whirlwind of energy whipped the flames into a demonic form that erupted with power to reveal their new companion.

It stayed silent and vulnerable as it gradually floated a few feet to the earth before its eyes flicked open. "Hail, my mast…" The succubus announced in a clear, contempt filled voice, which promptly spluttered to a halt upon viewing the three onlookers behind Tarena.

"We'll she's got some manners, but we'll have to work on that tone." Malorin stepped towards the faltering demon, which it lost it's footing and stumbled to the ground.

"Hey, correct me if I'm wrong but aren't succubus meant to be the biggest bad ass pain mistresses of all time, how'd we wind up with this pussy?" Annora moved in next to Malorin as she delivered her critique of the petrified creature on the ground.

"Kinda cute though aint she? All huddled up in fear like that." Tarena brought her arms in to her chest and pretended to cuddle something before spinning herself on one foot in a slight dreamy daze.

"Now Tarena is she safe?" The inter-dimensional police force said, examining the succubus' face.

"Perfectly!" Tarena replied still dancing slightly in joy over her success. "The binding works so she can't consciously do anything that would harm us. So sorry 'Nora no ruff sex with my new pet."

"Damn…" Annora stomped her foot and looked playfully depressed. "Well I'm sure you'll find a way to make my dreams come true soon enough."

"I'll get right on that after I've had my fun." Tarena smiled gleefully as the demon became more and more horrified with its predicament.

"Anything in mind, I'm sure she can do a fair few things with that tail we've never thought of?" Continued Annora with a slight glance over to Malorin who seemed to be doing her best to blot out the conversation.

"You can stop joking around in front of our new friend… she has feelings to." Gretel shyly interrupted the pair before bring a deathly silence over the forest clearing that lasted for quite some time.

"Who's joking?" Tarena finally came back in a serious tone, which provoked strange looks from everyone concerned and brought another silence down upon them.

'_This can't be happening… why are they here… why summon me… why is this happ…'_ Went the succubus' train of thought before a cat like and inverted elf's face shot down in front of her.

"Hello!"


	8. Blood, Sweat and Tears

I realy like this one, i hope you all do to. And as a gift it turned out extra longerer.

* * *

"Thank you my lord! Thank you so much…" The grateful paladin's voice echoed throughout the great halls of Stormwind castle.

"Think nothing of it sister, these are turbulent times and we cannot afford to have potential allies portrayed as crass villains." Marcus placed his hand on his young cohorts shoulder as his booming voice flowed soothingly into Malorin. "Not everyone agrees but it is my opinion that you are a great example to the rest of us. The Alliance and Horde working together is truly the best vision for the future of this world. Now go, we've not much time to send messengers and I'm sure some of the neonates would like to speak with you during your brief stay."

"Yes my lord… I… I shall see them at once." She spluttered still a little dazed by the complements she had been payed.

"This is not the military sister and that was not an order, but you have been missed." The huge hand let go of her shoulder and Marcus strode off towards his new goal of freeing Gretel from her captivity.

"Y… yes my lord…" Malorin continued to stammer in a low voice before wandering off with her head hung in thought. It had taken the entire agonizing night to gain an audience with Marcus but success made it all worthwhile and now she was once more free to enjoy her stay in Stormwind.

"Hey Malorin!" A shrill voice came seemingly out of nowhere, swiftly followed by a young girl and her friend.

"Hild?" The surprised paladin stumbled back as she received a flying hug from the neonate.

"We heard you where back in town so we all came to try and find you, we've been searching all morning. You haven't been the easiest person to find you know?" The friend said almost sarcastically.

"We'll Kevin I'm sorry to say this but I've been up all night on important business and I am very tired… can we all catch up tomorrow?" Malorin indicated the enormous black marks under her eyes and the three people adoring her became more than a little frustrated.

"You're always so busy being important, its time for you to relax, Hild says so!" The excited young girl clutched even tighter as she spoke before abruptly letting go.

"Well I suppose I do feel like a good, long soak…" Malorin tried to say before being interrupted mid sentence.

"Exactly! You've been on the road for almost six months now without stopping to rest and I think that's the least you deserve." The girl made a series of intricate and rather pointless gestures as she spoke which seemed to emphasise her youth more than her point.

"Yeah I think that would do the world of good, there's nothing like a nice bath." Kevin had a glint in his eye and overly obviously began to stare at Hild's modest chest.

"Well I'd love it if we all went together but Malorin might get a little shy of having you do nothing but star at her so off you go Kevin, we'll see you later." Hild's hand moved as fast as lighting when she had finished her sentence and suddenly her friend's cheek had a palm shaped red mark on it.

"Oh I don't mind in the slightest…" Malorin said with a hint of malicious victory in her tone, which provoked Kevin's playful attempt to remove her clothes using only his eyes.

"No… nope she'd be terribly embarrassed so off with you!" Hild turned the man around and started pushing him away before he begrudgingly left with an annoyed sigh and some grumbling that was not only the reason in part that he was still a neonate but also suggested that Apriana had slept her way into the order. "Boys… anything to get a peek." She continued when he was out of the room.

"Well with girls like you around can you blame him?" Malorin joked as they began their journey towards the small baths in the back of the building.

"Honestly I'm just waiting for the day he becomes man enough to use more than his eyes…" Hild's youthful voice said with a slight whimsicalness.

"Now, now… how will you ever become a paladin if you hand your body over to anyone who asks?" She calmly pointed out.

"Yeah I suppose your right… So… I honestly wait for the day he's man enough to ask me out?" The neonate corrected herself and watched for her superior's approval, which was swiftly granted in the form of a comforting smile. "And then after our first date I'm going to…" She jokingly tried to continue before being softly tapped on the back of the head.

"Really though…" Malorin started after a short silence that had descended between them. "If something ever happens… I suppose its up to you how far you go… just don't get carried away with the fun of it… things like that have consequences… and more so for people like us."

"Pfft… I know that stop, being a downer…besides so far this is all just wishful thinking." Hild opened the door to the bath room and the pair entered. "I'm sure old Kevin wouldn't turn me down but I don't think he's really… into me like that, you know?"

"Well by the sounds of things your not that into him either." Malorin placed her hands in the collar of her tunic and wriggled it over her head.

"I suppose your right, but I am just an inquisitive little girl…" The paladin watched indifferently as her friend removed the neonate robes before interrupting abruptly.

"Who wants to find out what sex is like?" She said while removing the rest of her clothes.

"… Well yeah… I suppose so." Hild timidly stepped towards the water, taken a bit off guard by her friend's words. Malorin was calm, she casualy stepped past the timid girl and sank her feet into the water. As she moved forward Hild's eyes followed the water line as it traced her skin and flesh and curves. The body flowed through the water and perched itself on a submersed step before releasing a heavy sigh. It was open, exposed, vulnerable and completely unobtainable to the neonate, petrified with uncountable foreign thoughts.

"Oh… I needed this…" Malorin whispered from behind closed eyes.

"Malorin?" Hild managed to voice through her dried up throat. "What… what's it like to… to be with a man…" Stammered the girl as racing thoughts snatched her mind.

"I am twenty six years old and I've been engaged for over half my life and I still cannot answer that question for you…" Malorin slowly mouthed with a voice so silent it was almost inaudible over the sound of the gentle ripples of water.

"Well what gives you the right to preach to me about sex!" Hild suddenly blurted out of nowhere and wholly failed any attempt at conviction. "I… I'm sorry Malorin…" She said after a while.

"Come here Hild." Malorin remained calm and immobile, her arms outstretched along the water line, her supple body stretched down through the water. The neonate slowly stepped into the water and tentatively waded to her defenceless companion. Nothing happened, her body was close enough to touch or taste but she still lay motionless against the wall only and as nothing happened Hild kept moving closer.

They where barely inches away, she could feel the heat from the paladin's body coming through the water surrounding them and then there wasn't even that. Malorin's arms closed around Hild, holding her in a tight embrace, there flesh pressed up against one another moving slowly as they breathed.

"This, my friend, is all I need in life…" Malorin whispered into Hild's ear in the most soothing tones imaginable. "All I have to do is hold you… feel each of your breaths… feel your heart beat in your breast… the warmth of your body…" Hild felt the words touch something deep inside her and then they kissed.

"What are you doing girl?" Malorin yelled as she threw her friend off her.

"Its… Its… I never…" Hild stammered trying to explain why she shoved her tongue into her friend's mouth.

"Hey oh!" The most inappropriate voice shouted from absolutely nowhere.

"Ah!" Malorin and Hild screamed in synchronisation.

"Can I play to?" It continued having identified itself as Nunu by the rasping tone alone.

"What is…" Hild tried to say before Nunu leapt across the room towards her and gave her a large lick up her cheek and over her eye.

"Nunu calm down!" Malorin pried the elf off her friend and did her best to keep any flailing to a minimum.

"I'm calm!" She yelled again before instantly freeing herself of the paladin's grasp and almost teleporting onto the step that lined the pool.

"Hild, this is my friend Nunu… the… psychotic night elf…" Malorin explained doing her best to stay as well composed as is possible while Nunu waved ecstatically.

"How did she get in here… and why is she wearing armour and a sword?" Hild shyly asked as she brought her knees into her chest.

"I got bad news!" Nunu screamed having decided it was her turn to talk again.

"What is it?" Malorin asked having already grown tired of the painful rotation of tones and volume that consisted of the elf's normal voice.

"I found where the bad guys put my troll." She continued completely oblivious to everything around her.

"That's good news Nunu…"

"She wasn't there but."

"I talked to my superiors and had her freed, but I'm glad you went and did your best anyway… now how about you go check on Annora?" Malorin pleaded in the most condescending voice she had used in a long time.

"I'm a good girl… hey why am I all wet?" Nunu gasped before her mind flickered over to something else. "No wait all the bad guys where dead though… my favourite was the one stuck to the roof with a chair leg." She giggled as she remembered the dangling corps she had found earlier.

"Oh no… Hild we'll finish this later I have to go." Malorin clambered out of the pool and wrestled her soaked body into her clothes.

"Aight I'm gonna play." Nunu edge closer to the cowering body Hild before being yanked out of the water by Malorin.

"Okay Nunu… take me to Gretel!" And Nunu did, through the city they travelled, running at full pace until they reached the room Annora had rented for them.

"Gretel!" Malorin charged through the door to find the troll curled up in a ball on the bed and Annora huddled up with her knees in her face in the corner. "Gretel are you okay?"

'_They where good people… they treated me nicely…'_ A familiar voice echoed inside Malorin's head.

"What happened Gretel?" She pressed on.

'_They kept apologising for what they had to do… then a man came… I saw him rip a person in half… I'm… I'm covered in blood Malorin… I'm covered in their blood…'_ It explained as the body on the bed crunched up into a tighter ball

"Calm down Gretel I'm here now…" Malorin walked up to the bed but before she could reach out to comfort the troll it spring to life and leapt into her arms.

'_He came to rescue me… but now I'm covered in blood… so many peoples blood!' _The voice screamed in her head and suddenly a picture came with the words. Janus covered in blood with a sword through a person's throat, the image is still but the person in it gargles and splutters for life on the end of his blade.

"Annora what did you do?" Malorin wraps her arms around Gretel's shoulders and hold her tight against her chest.

"I'm scared Malorin…" Annora quietly spoke through her knees.

"You hired Janus!" The paladin yelled at her friend in the corner.

"It's like he stole a piece of my soul…" Annora continued seemingly unaware she was being yelled at.

"He killed dozens of people!" Malorin kept yelling at the top of her lungs when suddenly Annora shot up off the ground in tears.

"You all left me!" She yelled back with tears streaming down her face. "You went and hid in you big castle! Nunu ran off! I was alone!" Silence entered the room as Malorin stared at Annora with unforgiving eyes. "Before I met you I was less than a brigand! I sold my body! I murdered people! I was an outcast… and then I met you… I became something better! I was a hero! Without you I'm weak!" Malorin's jaw dropped.

"When you where you… you told me you looked up to your mother! She might have been dead but she died for a cause! My father killed my mother and beat me! I was on the street when I was nine! What is a nine year old supposed to do to live when no one will help them! When you left I was just a little nine year old again! I saw a chance to save my only friend and I took it! I tried to be a hero again!"

Annora collapsed with her final statement and Malorin, unsure of what to do, moved down next to her friend. "Don't worry Annora… Gretel is safe… that's enough for now…" Malorin whispered in consolation as she took one arm off Gretel who still clung fiercely to her and wrapped it around Annora.

"Your all wet…" Annora quietly said as she leaned into the hug.

"Well with all that crying so are you…" Malorin joked weakly.

"Mal?" The crying girl pressed herself against the paladin's chest.

"Don't worry Annora… I wont leave you again."

"Now Nunu is alone…" The elf solemnly muttered to herself before wandering off.


	9. Midnight Confessions

"Annora?" The succubus' eerie voice quietly echoed through the hills that surrounded their small encampment.

"Yeah?" The woman responded wearily from her position next to the demon.

"Can you…" She paused all to aware of the paladin waiting for a reason to dispatch her watching her every move. "Tell me your story?"

"I was born… I met Malorin, I sat down next to a fire and told a succubus my life story." Annora slurred in a daze and drifting in and out of semi sleep.

"What do you want to know about us anyway?" A harsh paladins voice cut through the fog like comfort of soft tones through the flickering embers of the fire.

"I've been to this world several times before… the first I saw only sadness and violence, the second it was nothing but cities and towers, this time though I feel different. Maybe, perhaps, I can experience the best the world has to offer…" The succubus spoke in a compassionate voice as she stared at Malorin in her lest intimidating stare.

"Your seduction wont work on me, I'm all to aware of the tricks you demons play. You weasel into our confidence and then…" Malorin interrupted while still doing her best attempt not to wake Annora before she was cut off herself.

"No, you know nothing of demonic tricks. You know of fire and brimstone and subversion…" The succubus' eyes flared with an unholy light and the flame separating the pair crackled into a pillar of fire. "There is so much more to the powers of darkness… but today I am submissive, bound to my mistress by magic and choice."

"Choice?" Malorin's voice spat out with a bucket load of spite. "Your kind would bathe this world in your black fires by choice."

"I don't have to explain myself to you. Even if I cannot fight back my mistress will protect me from your unjust rancour." Annora slumped over into full sleep as the succubus finished her sentence and landed softly on the demons shoulder, which surprised the two conscious entities more than it should have. Following this was a short silence while Annora instinctually snuggled up against the warm arm to get more comfortable.

Malorin glared with fury as the succubus' gaze turned towards her friend and the paladin sprung to her feet and strode around the fire. "Come now Annora we are going to bed." She said tearing the girl from her comfortable position.

"Malorin…" The succubus said through gasps as though her heart had been wrenched from its body. "Make no mistake, I am seductive, depraved and masochistic but that doesn't mean I don't have feelings to. Where it not for my horns I would be wondering who here is the real demon." She continued as Malorin walked off and even though the paladin tried not to show it the words injured her deeply. Slowly Tarena raised her head from her makeshift pillow to check that Malorin had gone before climbing to her feet.

"So…" Tarena sat down next to her pet who had pulled its knees up to its chest and was staring bluntly at the fire in deep thought.

"I assume you where listening mistress?" The succubus calmly asked even though it already knew the answer.

"Well… yeah… but anyway don't be to hard on the girl." Tarena's elven voice did its best attempt to dance its tones into a comforting melody. "She just doesn't really like demons… or warlocks for that matter because her mother got killed by them."

"I know…" The demon gave the impression of a sudden realisation with its otherworldly speech.

"So if that's all well and good whets getting to you? I decided to get a succubus to liven up the group not to be all mopey." She inquired while shuffling a little closer to her pet and leaning up against it.

"I know because I was there…" The succubus suddenly blurted out, bringing little more than no immediate shock to her master.

"Yeah… wait… what?" Yelled the elf in a surprisingly quiet voice when her mind was done fumbling through the meaning of the words.

"Twenty five years ago I belonged to Inuet Cloudstrider. I took part in the battle, I helped murder Malorin's mother." Continued the succubus preparing herself for the moment when her master would attempt to jump away.

"I think that's something we wont tell our holy friend." Tarena quietly whispered while fixing her gaze on the fire. "Besides its not really like you would have done it without the bindings."

"Before you summoned me yesterday I was a succubus, I enjoy the torturous death of innocents…"

"And kinky sex…" Tarena interrupted briefly.

"Uh… yes… and kinky sex…" The succubus hesitantly added in at her mistress' suggestion before continuing. "But after you summoned me I realised there are things I want to see here."

"Is this about what Gretel said?" Tarena placed her hand on the pale skin of her pet's stomach and gently began to cares the flesh with her fingernails while she spoke.

"Its all of you… My masters and mistresses before you treated me as I have been treated my whole existence, as a tool. It has always been subversion, combat or gratification and never about my desires." She explained with a voice that knew less about her mistress' hands than her mind did.

"Oh…" Tarena bluntly said in disappointment and removed her hand. "Well I suppose you got that out just in time then?"

"No… don't forget what I am… I enjoy all manner of fornication and depravity, I've just never really been given the choice before." The succubus calmly reasoned slightly unsure what to do with this new and slightly scary power of choice.

"Well that's good because I don't think we'd have need for you if you weren't going to gratify us sexually." Tarena tried to joke but instead only succeeded in mildly insulting her pet. A long and uncomfortable silence descended between them when even the usually roaming elven hands kept to themselves. "We're screwed aren't we?"

"You're the only one who isn't neck deep, if you want you could leave and save yourself." The succubus calmly gazed at a leather cap on the ground as they spoke about the impending disaster.

"No… they saved me once, now I want to at least try to save them, that's why I came back." Tarena leaned into the warm flesh until she had her head in the demons lap where she shut her eyes and bathed in the warm comfort.

"I can live with trying…"

Some time later Annora awoke smothered in Malorin's arms, who was clutching on to her like she was an oversized teddy bear. Though the silk undershirt she could hear the steady thud-thud of her friend's heart and the unmistakably soothing aroma of mild incense, which had clawed its way into Malorin's being during years in churches and monasteries. The embrace brought on thorough and complete contentment and had something not been wrong Annora would have retreated into her dreams again almost immediately.

She tried snuggling into Malorin but as soothing as the breathing pillow was it couldn't shake the steady discomfort that grew in her gut. Like an epiphany it struck, her head was bare and Annora immediately broke out in a cold sweat. Slowly and painfully She pried the paladins arms off her taking great care not to wake her friend or anyone else before climbing to her feet and scouring the area for her cap.

It was on the ground near the fire where Tarena slept peacefully in her succubus lap, who also hung its head dozing. As quietly as possible she crept along the ground to where the only piece of clothing that mattered to her lay, snatched it up and nestled it gently on her head. However a knot formed in the pit of her stomach, pre-empting the all to real sight of the succubus who stared strait at Annora with a warm smile from ear to ear. She had seen everything.


	10. Extended Introduction

There are many reasons why this is late (i've been trying to update weekly) includeing the following: i helped run a stall at a games convention, my internet broke, broke, your face broke, the dean invited me and my friends to a bar and we all got drunk, etc. Hopefully i'll be able to continue a weekly trend.

* * *

"Malorin…" Annora calmly asked across the lopsided table. "Can you remind me just why, exactly, we still allow Nunu to drink this much in single sitting?"

"That seventeenth pint probably was a little excessive." She ran the tips of her fingers around the rim of the stiff leather pitcher that contained the taverns favoured brew.

"Oh yes I think excessive is probably the best word for it…Come on lets get out of here." Annora lurched out of her seat and took her place at the elf's side, who burbled incoherently with her face planted on the table.

"Alright…" Malorin slid Nunu's arm off the table and around her neck and together the pair heaved the elf off her wooden rest.

"Don't forget to pay the men girl." Annora said in a strained voice under her share of the weight.

"You know some day I'm going to make you pay for all the drinks." The paladin withdrew several coins from a pouch in her belt and scattered them on the table, then picked up the excess and put it back.

"Pfft… you're the one with the salary not me. Hey how 'bout we make Nunu pay, she's drinks the most anyway?" Annora began a pained shuffle towards the tavern door as she spoke. "Ugh… Is Nunu gaining weight because I could have sworn it didn't take both of us to pick her scrawny ass up before?"

"Its really a wonder she can climb all those trees…" Malorin calmly pondered.

"That still leaves the question of where she hides the sack of bricks. I mean why does this gangly little…" Annora interrupted before having the favour repaid in turn.

"Little? She's seven feet tall…"

"Be that as it may, it doesn't explain why she has bones of lead. Its not like it's her armour… what little she does wear is all made of mythril." She continued without even taking a breath.

"On the topic of armour can you try and persuade her to start wearing pants instead of that tasset, its embarrassing." Malorin grunted as they stepped out into the street.

"Aww… is Mal getting… fireball!" Annora broke into a yell and dropped her load before diving for cover from an orb of flame that suddenly erupted out of the sky.

"Find out what's happening, I'll hide Nunu." Malorin clambered off the ground and did her best to drag the elf into an alcove.

"Be back in a tick…" Annora bolted across the street, narrowly avoiding another of the increasingly common fireballs. She ran as fast as she could towards the towns meagre guard outpost only to find that on arrival the entire building was completely ablaze and surrounded by menagerie of lesser demons, several of which where finishing off a survivor. The cause of this devastation appeared when a blood elf strode towards the dying guard and held a gem to his forehead. Annora didn't need to see any more and sprinted back towards the tavern.

"Annora lead the way!" Malorin yelled over the growing inferno as soon as her friend came within eyeshot.

"We have a warlock, probably possessed and about a dozen demons, most if not all the guards are dead." Annora ran as she gave a run down of current events.

"Alright you try and flank them I'll head strait in." The paladin commanded as they approached the enemy.

"Yes 'mam!" She replied before darting off through a mildly flaming building.

Malorin flew into the street, landing sword first on an unfortunate imp. A volley of demonic flames streaked towards her in response and impacted harmlessly on her shield. She charged again, arcing her sword through one foes face and another's knees. Her blade cleaved through the enemy flesh as though it where paper, aided by divine wrath and what few survived to retaliate found their claws glancing off the paladins steeled body.

"Incoming!" Annora yelled as she bounded from the shadows and flying tackled Malorin out of the combat, briefly before a growing howl landed on the ground where the paladin used to be.

"See you later kiddies!" The warlock proclaimed in a shrill voice before she turned tail and fled.

"Mal…" Annora worryingly announced as her friend began to chase down the elf. Malorin glanced back only to stop dead in her tracks as an incendiary roar emanated from the infernal that stood tall in its crater.

"Knock, knock!" A voice screamed as it leapt off a flaming buildings roof, soared over the street and landed its dull edged sword on the earthen demons face hard enough to send the beast sprawling to the ground. Landing groggily on the ground, she staggered a little before turning towards Malorin and waving frantically, almost loosing balance. The newly righted infernal swatted her aside like an insect and Nunu hurtling into a flaming building, taking out a good chunk of the front wall as she went.

The beast continued its rampage towards a stunned Annora and slammed its clenched fists on top of her only to be block by a crackle of magic as Malorin intercepted the assault with her shield. Taking advantage of her foes reeling stance to leap onto its chest and perfectly plant the end of her blade in the cleave from Nunu's attack then retreating before the monster could retaliate.

"Fight Annora!" Malorin commanded as another blast of power erupted with her defence. Across from the battle, Nunu leapt out of the building and charged once more towards the towering infernal, who blocked her path with its clenched fist and the two collided with an obvious victory for the fist. Nunu crumpled to the ground however while the demon was distracted a cloud of smoke burst from where Annora and Malorin used to be.

Not to be dissuaded by the disappearance of two of its foes the infernal quickly returned its attention to the elf slumped on the ground. As it raised its clawed hand for a finishing blow a razer sharp blade dug into its rocky back, prompting its immediate change of plan. The hand flew down and collected Nunu's body from the ground and flung it directly into Annora. Malorin dashed from the cloud, scooped the enormous bladed paddle from the ground and flew up the creatures back. The sword raised above her head that glistened with arcane energies sliced down into the weakened crack, shattering it in a thunderous explosion.

The paladin clambered off her back after a short rest on the ground and shambled towards where Annora was pinned underneath their elven friend. "You two alright?"

"I think I broke a rib…" Annora gasped through obvious pain as she clutched her side.

"Nunu?" Malorin calmly pulled the elf onto the ground only to find her snoring loudly.

"Typical… anyway fix me… ah… up a bit…" Annora tried to move but only succeeded in hurting herself. Malorin firmly placed her hand on the side of the girl's chest and sidled the other up under her breast. "Oh Mal…" Annora tried to sound erotic but instead winced in pain.

"Yes, very funny." Malorin closed her eyes and a dull glow emanated from her palms, soothing the broken bones.

"Remind me to get stabbed in the ass one day." Annora said after climbing to her feet. "Hey wake up Nunu!" She continued while putting her boot into the side of the elf's chest to no effect.

"Hey Nunu, bad guys…" Malorin tried and the elf instantly sprung to its feet.

"Where's… where's they?" She groggily stumbled around, eventually draping herself over Annora.

"She went that way." Annora pointed one arm and pushed the elf off in the same direction.

"This way!" Nunu broke into full pace, charging off mostly on the indicated course. The journey was short and uneventful, leading to a supposedly deserted homestead not far out of the town. "I smell gooey rocks!" Nunu proclaimed pointing to the house.

"Gooey rocks?" Annora gave Malorin a puzzled stair.

"Brimstone… lava… Gooey rocks." She pointed out. "But here's the plan, I'll head in the front and Annora you sneak in the back. Nunu, you stay here…"

"But…"

"Stay here! Okay lets move." Malorin headed off towards the door, making sure her timing would coincide with Annora's entry. Slowly she approached the main entrance before sharply kicking the door off its hinges and bursting into the room. The warlock stood in a prepared battle pose with a confident smile, eagerly awaiting the arrival on her two guests.

A shower of splinters erupted from the wall as Nunu's sword cleaved through half the wall. Everyone spun to face this fresh onslaught, everyone except Malorin who lunged forward and brought the hilt of her sword down onto the side of the warlock's head, knocking her unconscious. "Good job Nunu, I knew you could do it."

"Didn't you tell her to wait behind though?" Annora said helping the elf through her hole in the wall.

"You didn't seriously expect her to just stay there did you? Besides if we actually told her to do something chances are she'd have just forgotten and wandered off." Malorin knelt next to the body and scrawled an incandescent rune in the air above the corrupted forehead. With a slight puff the warlock's body convulsed and let out an unearthly scream as a malevolent spirit was forcibly ripped from its host. "So what should we do with her?"

"We gotta take care of her!" Nunu leered at the body, which seemed to be making a speedy recovery.

"When you say take care of do you mean fluff her pillows or slit her throat?" Annora asked shuffling her way in between the elves.

"Either, you pick one." Nunu became very excited as the newly liberated warlock veered into consciousness.

"Easy now girl…" Malorin soothingly whispered. "Can you remember your name?"

"Eh… where… name? I… I'm Tarena…"


	11. A Sister Called savant

Enjoy...

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_Gretel slowly proper herself up on the harsh woollen mattress and wearily tried to claw the sleep out of her eyes. People where watching her, people she'd never seen before. They bombarded her with questions about herself, who she was, where she had come from, if she had any family… Gretel wanted to answer but she didn't have any words for them, it was all so much, so overwhelming. The troll huddled herself into a ball and crept into the corner of the bed trying to do her best to hide behind the rugged blankets. Everyone watching seemed to back off, giving her space enough to breath and move. She couldn't talk and soon the people began to leave until there was only one person left. This lone being clad in a heavy shroud and silken coth moved close and sat down in front of the troll. _

_"You may call me savant…" It slowly announced in a feminine whisper that seemed to inject warmth into the listener._

"What are we doing with this bitch any way?" Gretel heard a gruff voice ask as she faded back into consciousness.

"Its called insurance, if those other cunts come looking…" The gruff voice's companion replied in an annoyed tone. "Hey she's moving again…" Gretel heard slightly before feeling a sharp blow to her head.

_"How are you feeling Gretel?" savant calmly asked in her usual caring attitude._

_The troll couldn't remember anything, nothing of herself before she woke in the shaman's tent except her name. In the days that had past people had taken an active interest in her, she was a mystery in a small backwater village._

_"Do not worry, I'm sure that in time things will make themselves clear." The white silk glove reached into Gretel's deep red hair and tenderly massaged her scalp. savant was even more of a mystery than the troll, something purely unknown. She had carried the unconscious body into the town and cared for it ever since. However her hood obscured her entire face and the rest of her body was layered in the finest white silks and robes._

_"You are so very special… dear Gretel…"_

"Yeah apparently we got the easy job, the other one they just had to feed until she went to sleep." The gentler voice was mid conversation. "Even without her sword she's as strong as an ox, I heard she almost broke Kaa's arm clean off and that was when she thought they where playing a game."

"Does kinda make me feel lucky, besides I prefer this girl over some scrawny elf. Nice and chesty." The gruff friend seemed bored with all the waiting that was going on.

"That's wrong okay, and don't forget I rob people for a living. I might understand going for an elf, other than the ears I can hardly tell the difference anyway, but they should at least have the same amount of fingers as us."

"Well you go get yourself an orc then, they've got that. I say that when it comes down to having to be bored out of my mind, guarding a prisoner I'd rather take a reasonably well endowed troll over pretty much any elf…"

_The village had been very pleasant during Gretel's recovery, with an unparalleled tranquillity that hung in the air. It had been almost two months now and savant had tutored her as though she where an innocent child._

_"But Gretel, you are a child… innocent and pure… given the chance to start again that so many long for, cherish your life and all it has to offer." Unlike all the other times however, savant's voice was unable to undo the knot that grew in Gretel's stomach._

_It was time to leave the village as well as part ways with the teacher that she had grown to think of as a sister. The entire populous had turned up to send the troll off on her first adventure by throwing her what passed for a festival in such small places. When the sun reached its zenith the moment came when Gretel stood on the edge of the village with every one watching, waiting for the first tentative steps. savant held the troll's hands in her palms, her stature enhanced by pride._

_"This is your story from now on Gretel and I have no part in it, all I can do is to give you my undying hope, faith and love."_

"The boss said he's gonna come in and check on the prisoner…" The gruff voice announced over a closing door.

"Well Jask, looks like you're not the only guy with a fetish for tusks here." Jask's friend sarcastically commented.

"Come on those are toothpicks not tusks… Anyway we're not…"

"Your not…"

"We're not allowed to touch her until boss has had his fun." Jask commanded through his obvious anger.

"I don't really see what it matters, I prefer girls of our species and I've never seen some one so scared of waking up a girl. I mean you got this big tough guy thing going, then you come out and say you wanna have kids with two fingers a hand. You finally get the gumption to put your hands on her and then what? She's not gonna notice, she's out cold. Even if she did what's she gonna do about it?"

"Finished?"

"Yeah… I noticed she was awake again so I just thought I'd give her the run down of what a pervert you are." Jask's friend said with a smirk from ear to ear before receiving a punch in the face. Shortly after Gretel also receives a punch to the head.

_Gretel was trapped and about to be eaten by kobolds. All the time people had invested into her was about to be wasted and digested by a band of marauding critters. She had tried to stick to the main roads and stay safe but they only seemed to be a magnate for bandits and the like. This is how savant's great legacy would end, devoured over a fire. A waving figure stepped forward, someone from the past… no some one Gretel knew. A deranged elf with a desire for mayhem leapt into the fray, swinging wildly. Unlike anything the troll had seen before the elven blade freed her in a matter of seconds and despite their last meeting Gretel was truly happy to see Nunu. But now Nunu had friends of her own… humans who genuinely accepted a troll in their midst. Perhaps this is what things are supposed to be._

"Are you finally awake little one?" A sinister voice came out of a burly man who traced the end of a knife along her cheek. Gretel was held to some makeshift prison wall as this despicable figure loomed ominously over her. His tongue slathered his lips with thick saliva as the pointed tip worked its way down her face and over her chest. "Your friends mustn't think we're serious so its time to give them a reminder." He pressed the knife gently into her breast, pricking slightly through her skin and forcing her to give out a gasping squeal. "But you see the thing about trolls is that fingers grow back… so I've decided to take a whole hand… but before we give it away who knows what fun we could have with it." He leered as he pulled back the knife in preparation.

The knife slammed into the flesh of her left wrist with a disturbing clink.

"This is your story from now on Gretel and I have no part in it, all I can do is to give you my undying hope, faith and love." savant leant in towards Gretel and pressed her lips against the troll's.

The perverted boss stumbled backwards as the trollish body erupted into a shadowy, ethereal form. Gretel pushed her head forward towards the unbalanced man until her hands immaterial form fell through her shackles and she drifted just above the ground. A dull concussive thud was let off just before her tormentor collapsed to the earthen floor, devoid of life.

She pushed forward, drifting effortlessly through the wooden door that separated her from the keepers of her cell. Jask and his friend turned to face the apparition and immediately entered combat. The softer voiced robber swung his claymore hopelessly through her immaterial form. In return Gretel let loose an ear splitting cackle of negative energy, forcing the two screaming to the ground as blood squirted from their deafened ears.

Drawn by the sound the remaining kidnappers burst into the room only to find their two kin writhing in pools of their own life essence. They where no match for Gretel's wrath, they fell upon there own blades as she dominated their limbs and had them disembowel themselves. Down the stairs stepped one brave soul, a warlock stood at the only exit ready to face the hate filled troll.

"Sleep!" The warlock commanded with a twist of arcana in her outstretched hand and with that Gretel's body collapsed back into normality in a pile on the floor.

"We should really put a leash on that girl…" Annora followed Tarena down into the den. "This is like the third time we've had to rescue her. Still, its good to finally have you back Tarena."


	12. After the Finally

Sorry these are late... i went on a holiday. anyway i hope you like them and i'm gonna be working hard to get something special up over christmass. that is if its not that special i'll just do more... great now i've committed myself... /scratch head ... ... ... WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!

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Apriana was flung down through the ceaseless abyssal hole, tumbling end over end. All that awaited her was a never-ending pit of darkness when she caught a glimpse of something in her the corner of eye. Instinctively her hand shot out and clenched onto the solid granite rock it found at the end of its reach. The sudden jerk of her arrested momentum almost pulled her arm out of its socket before swinging her into the side of the cliff. It seemed like hours that she swayed gently with her hand latched onto the edge, unable to move and barely able to breath. She began to loose hope, the longer she tried to regain her strength the longer her arm seemed to grow, the edge was so distant now and it was time to give up. 

The chunk of rock she held fast to snapped cleanly off the bedrock letting the paladin once more fly into the nether. Although this time she didn't fall. A massive hand clad in heavy Kodo hides clenched around her wrist with a painfully strong grip saved her from her plight. "You dress like them but your not one of them…" Apriana surreally ran her free hand over the fingers attached to her arm. The hand had five fingers like a normal person but the glove was unmistakably made from the same coarse material as what the Tauran's wore.

Slowly she was hauled up over the edge, accompanied by the scraping of her armour on the rock. A lone campfire cast a dull light over her as she lazily rolled around trying to find her bearings. Apriana gradually stood up with her wits at least partially regained. In front of her was a massive person, the two where almost the same height only the figure was sitting quietly with its eyes transfixed by the flickering blaze. "Who are you?" The paladin quietly demanded with a slight stumble forward.

"If you watch this fire you can almost tell what's happening…" The figure calmly spoke from under its wide brimmed hat and heavy coat.

"Wha… What are you on about?" Apriana stumbled a few more steps towards the fire, barely able to hold onto her own consciousness.

"Don't let the sleep get to you, come and sit here with me." The voice was quiet but undeniably powerful, even through its mellow tone.

"What's going on? Where am I?" Apriana indignantly replied to the command. "And who are you?"

"If you fall asleep here you will be gone forever." It continued, having ignored the slight inquisition. With all the speed she could muster Apriana drew her sword and held it out towards the figure, who seemed to notice but didn't really care.

"Answer my questions wench!" She almost fell over with the exertion of putting force into her words. In an instant lithe arms wrapped in inches of kodo hide leather curled around her torso to support her as she fell.

"The one things we have plenty of is time my friend…" The figure whispered softly as she lowered the paladin onto the ground. "So collect yourself and I will answer all your questions when we are ready."

"Wait…" Apriana sluggishly rolled her eyes over the figures face. "We've met before…" The figures face was a pleasant blue grey with faint glowing lights over its eyes and a thin streak of red hair fell through its face. "I know you…"The paladin leapt off the ground and landed in her fighting stance with an explosion of energy. "You're Cloudstrider!"

The figure didn't move from its solemn position, only hanging her head in disappointment of this truth. "I am who she used to be…"

"I will see you burn for your treachery!" Apriana rushed the elf and brought the edge of her blade down towards her target, stopping it mere inches from slicing into bone.

"But you can feel it can't you…" Inuet clambered off the ground and stood at her full height in front of the woman. "I am not the same as the monstrosity that murdered you."

"Then what are you?" Apriana leant in towards the night elf holding herself in a spite filled and combat ready position.

"I am like you… all that is left of a once glorious soul. The only thing that remains of us is our will to live on, I for atonement and you for your hatred." Her voice had become more commanding than before and dropped many of the subtle tonnes the elf preferred to use.

"How do I get out of here?" The paladin continued in an angered voice.

"You are dead!" The words sent Apriana reeling back in disbelief. "Right now are a soul swimming around inside that new me."

"But… w… why… you…" She stuttered with the realization that her life was over. "Why are you… why are you still here then?"

"This meagre fire…" Inuet turned towards the small campfire that miraculously kept burning. "As long as it burns… there is hope… and the more hope the brighter it grows." Turning back towards the human Inuet put on a slight smile from under her hat that's confidence managed to sooth Apriana a little. "We can still win… I can pay for my mistakes and you can say goodbye to your daughter."

"Then that means…" The paladin hung her head after a short bout of excitement. "She's still alive, we all died for nothing…"

"Give things time my friend." Inuet placed her hand on the woman's shoulder and gently squeezed it to reaffirm her point. "We have a better chance of success in death than we ever did in life."


	13. Age Difference

"Good morning Annora." Malorin wearily lifter her head off the makeshift pillow that was her bag.

"Sorry to wake you." Annora replied as she finished rolling up her bedroll and threw a leather buckle around it.

"Its okay, we should probably be getting up anyway." She threw off the coarse woollen sheet she had used to reveal a troll clinging onto her arm. "Hmm I forgot about that."

"Oh now Mal when did this start happening?" Annora stood up with her hands in fists on her waist and an accusing glare directed strait at the pair.

"Its to early in the morning for those jokes Annora." Malorin tried to slip her arm out from Gretel's grip but only succeeded in waking her a little.

"A'ight… Come on girly its time to get up." She knelt down next to the troll and ran her fingers through the deep red hair of her stirring friend.

"Hmmm…" Gretel murmured as she tightened her grip on the captive arm.

"Do you ever get the feeling, Mal, that some people just aren't cut out for the adventuring life?" Annora ran her hand through the hair again.

"I think she's doing fine, its just that she's getting a little unlucky that's all. How would you feel if you where kidnapped three times?" Malorin managed to sit up on her bedroll and the troll lazily slumped itself over her shoulder in an effort to get comfortable.

"Sounds kinky, what did they do to me?" A sly smile crept onto her face.

"What if they cut off your finger?" Annora looked puzzled until Gretel's left hand was pried loose and held up for her to see and surely enough the tip of one of the fingers was missing.

"Uh… that wasn't there yesterday."

"It must have been, how else could it have happened?" Now Malorin was the one with the puzzled look.

"We checked her whole body and she only had some bruising, a knick in her tit that had already healed and this cut here." Annora ran her finger down a faint line of rough, pale skin on Gretel's wrist. "I think if she was missing a finger we would have noticed."

"Eh… Slow down, I don't understands what you're saying." Gretel quietly interrupted in a spelunking voice that was still half asleep.

"Gretel…" Malorin shook the troll a little and she seemed to spark to life a similar amount. "When did this happen?" She touched along the base of the maimed finger.

"When did what happen?"

"When did this happen?" Annora snatched the hand as gently as she could and held it firmly by the palm. Gretel turned her face towards the woman and opened her eyes a little to see what she was talking about.

"I did that making dinner last night."

"I told you to leave dinner to us, you where stressed…" Malorin started before being waved down by Annora.

"Gretel close your eyes." She did. "How many of your fingers am I squeezing?"

"One." She replied.

"How about now?" Annora asked.

"Still one."

"And now?"

"Both."

"Again?"

"Ah…" Gretel let out a short gasp of pain and her eyes flicked open to see Annora pricking a dagger into her shoulder. Similarly the troll spotted several other pinpricks of blood along her arm.

"Gretel…" Annora hung her head for a while before raising it again with a solemn look on her face. "You have no feeling in your entire left arm."

"But… wha… no…" The troll stammered trying to make sense of the situation.

"The Gretel I know would have at least yelped if she cut off her own finger, even if it was just the tip of it." Annora explained putting her dagger back in the sheath on the back of her waist.

"But how did this happen to me?" Gretel began to break down into tears and pulled her arm back to help cover her face.

"What did I miss?" Tarena leapt into the small cavernous encampment and enthusiastically asked with a modest smile that only provoked harsh glares from the two humans in the group.

"Tarena just… not right now okay." Malorin's voice was unpleasantly sombre.

"What's wrong gals?" The elf wondered aloud, taking several concerned steps towards the three.

"There tryin ta figure out who broke my troll!" Nunu said from her new position, suspended from the overhanging rock.

"Where have you been Nunu?" Annora was a little surprised by the sudden intrusion, but it was more annoying than anything else.

"Shiny eyes wanted to play." She smiled, allowing her voice to sink into guttural tones.

"What I thought it would be fun!" Tarena placed her hands on her hips and righteously spouted after everyone gave her a despising look.

"Yeah… she wanted to play with me to when we first met… I beat her off with a wooden stick." Annora returned her gaze to Gretel and the injured arm.

"Literally." Malorin added.

"But that explains why you look like shit." Annora let a hand go to brush a stray piece of hair behind one of her ears. "So how was it?"

"Like being naked in a room full of twelve year old boys." Tarena disappointedly relaxed her posture and sat down.

"Sounds like just your kind of thing then."

"Well yeah but twelve year old boys are so much better because they have…" She stopped. Everyone other than Nunu was completely appalled with the wistfully serious tone she was using. Gretel looked slightly ill and even cheesecake was showing signs of discomfort. "So about Gretel…"

"Yes… um… She's lost feeling in her left arm." Malorin was understandably shaken by Tarena's words but managed to keep herself from an outburst.

"I bet it's just a lingering injury from when she was captured. With that troll blood she'll be as good as new in a day or two, besides I hardly think its going to get worse and its not like there is really anything we can do about it here." The elf explained slightly indifferently. "If you want I'll take a look at it but I doubt I'll see anything that you don't." She added after someone noticed her apathy.

"She's right…" Gretel calmly nodded her head. "If its not better in a few days lets worry about it then."

"Well alright but if anything happens you tell us right away, Okay?" Malorin was a little worried that they weren't doing anything but it was true that they really didn't have anything they could do.

"So is it time to move out?" Tarena asked as she lounged back and threw a glance up to Nunu who was climbing around on the roof like overhang.

"I'd probably say so… You ready Gretel?" Malorin pried the troll off her, stood up and began to stretch her arms and legs. There was a slight crack and Nunu fell from the ceiling and landed heavily on her back.

"Nunu's hungry!" She squealed, more at the thought of food than from any pain.

"Its not to far until the next town girl, can it wait until midday?" Annora said while she helped Gretel to her feet.

"Nunu's hungry now!"

"Then go out and find something to eat you crazy elf." Annora continued in an increasingly annoyed voice and with several bounds Nunu did.

"Hey 'Nora…" Tarena sheepishly looked at the woman who was helping pack up Malorin's bedroll.

"Yeah?" She replied as she fastened the buckle around the object.

"How old do you think Nunu is?"

"We asked her that once. All we got was 'much oldy', which isn't really that helpful." Malorin answered while handing two of the corners of the woollen blanket to Gretel.

"The oldest thing she's ever mentioned was a few years back." Annora added with a strained memory. "Why?"

Tarena put a grin on so wide it barely fit on her face. "I just got with someone young enough to be my great great grand daughter…"

"And to think I doubted you would give it to a twelve year old." Annora put the bedroll on the ground and turned her face away in disgust.

"Oh come on it was just that one time and he was… lonely…" Tarena started before realising what she had just let out.

"I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit." Gretel gasped, almost gagging on her own throat.


	14. Merry Christmas

Okay chumps because i didn't get any replies i canceled your suprise... sucks to be you. Anyway you get a two part christmas story because i can. If you want my personal feelings about this i'm not to pleased with it, mainly because i decided that all the decent stuff worked better in part duex.

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It had been the best sleep Gretel could remember in her entire life. The soft down pillows, smooth bed linin and complimentary silk nightgown eased her mind in a way that nothing else had ever really managed to. She wriggled around in the bed a little, not to get more comfortable but to feel the material glide around her skin in a way that no other fabric does. A hand crept its way into her hair and stroked down the side of her head with a tenderness enhanced by the lavish surroundings.

"Come on Gretel." A soft voice whispered gently.

"Just a little longer…" She mumbled back, rolling onto her other side to escape the person trying to wake her. A hand worked its way under her torso, eased her off the bed, carrying her a short distance before placing her down again, blanket and all in an equally exorbitant chair overlooking a fire and the Christmas tree.

"So everyone's here now can we start?" Annora eagerly rocked back and forth in her cross-legged position next to the tree.

"I don't see why not, so who would like to go first?" Malorin placed herself in a position in between the troll and the presents and extending her arm out so it hovered over the meagre pile of gifts they had managed to collect over the past day and a half.

"Nunu does! Nunu wanna go first!" The night elf jumped up and down ecstatically, still wearing her armour even though, like everyone else, a nightgown had been prepared for her.

"Alright Nunu you can go first." Malorin carefully chose a package off the pile and handed it to the elf, who had sat down and was rolling around on the floor with excitement.

"Yay yay yay yay yay…" Nunu yelled uncontrollably as she snatched the present and ripped the packaging off it in a flurry of paper shreds, revealing a bone shaped chew toy made from dried pigskin that immediately found itself in use.

"That ones from me…" Annora gloated as the satisfied Nunu curled up in a ball with her latest toy.

"Well this ones for Tarena." The paladin picked up a largish box and handed it to the elf, who had somehow managed to get her hands on a Miss Clause costume that in her typical fashion was less than modest.

"Thank you so much Mal." She took the box and carefully attempted to remove the paper without tearing it.

"Its from all of us…" Malorin pointed out as Tarena removed a long red dress from the box.

"Oh… its beautiful…" The elf said genuinely lost for words over her gift. "I'm gonna try it on right now."

"Malorin…" The succubus quietly shyly let out once her mistress had left the immediate vicinity. "That ones for you." She pointed to a small, unwrapped case under the tree, which the paladin hesitantly picked up and glanced inside.

"Hey what is it?" Annora tried to peer over her shoulder but found the case snapped shut instantly again by Malorin.

"Its her name Annora." The paladin coldly said, tossing the case into her belongings on the other side of the room.

"Her wha…" Annora leaned back into her previous position before being hit by a strange realisation. "That's a good point, we've been together for like two weeks now and no one actually knows what to call you."

"After the first few centuries 'hey you' stops being annoying." The succubus tried to make a joke of it.

"What did I miss?" Tarena bounded back towards her previous seat in her new dress and finished with a twirl.

"Lookin nice girl." Annora applauded, deciding to overlook her friend's ability to change clothes with remarkable speed.

"I know I love it!" Tarena struck a short pose that she had decided fully showed off her newest wardrobe addition. The long, slender bottom of the dress had a slit up most of the right side, through which she jutted out as much of her leg as possible and a theme of gold embroidery ran through the sleeveless torso section which the elf had barely done up half way.

"Annora I think its your turn." Malorin shoved a present towards the lounging girl.

"Hooray!" Annora hurriedly tore the wrapping off and finding a box of chocolates underneath. "Oh yes!" She yelped before throwing her arms around Malorin. "How did you know?"

"Just a hunch."

"Ungh…" Annora gasped as she devoured one of the treats. "I remember the last time I had these a guy was trying to get me to… well you can probably figure out the rest."

"I'll remember that…Annora's weakness: chocolate…" Tarena pretended to write down as she spoke.

"Girl, I'd sleep with Nunu if she gave me a box of these." Annora added, barely able to conquer the sensation she was eating.

"Really? Nunu?" Malorin wondered looking at the elf that was currently making a small puddle of drool on the ground as she gnawed on her treat.

"Well it would have to be a big box…" Annora shut the box in a nigh futile attempt to stop herself from eating any more of her present. "Hey what's that one with the label?"

"It's addressed to Gretel but I don't remember seeing it before." Malorin picked up the small cube like present. "Here open it." Gretel quietly caught the gift as it was tossed to her and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She peeled the paper off only to find a wooden box underneath. The troll opened it and withdrew a brilliant flower made entirely of mooncloth.

"Now that is pretty." Tarena peered at the flower in amazement. "Who gave it to her?" A short silence followed.

"savant…" Gretel proudly whispered loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Whose savant?" Annora gazed at the troll unsure what to think. Gretel just smiled though, not caring enough to say. "It wouldn't happen to be a pet name for that 'dreamy' troll we bumped into… what was his name?"

"Ding?"

"Yeah him."

"No.

"Leave it Annora we can play twenty questions later, its present time." Malorin interrupted attempting to pick another present out of the diminished pile.

"I think it's your turn Mal." Tarena stepped in and pointed at a box hidden right up the back. With a smile Malorin reached over, took the box and set it at her feet. She pulled one of the ends of the luscious red ribbon and the entire packaging popped off to show that underneath was a magnificent snow globe. "Now be careful with that it wasn't easy to find."

"Thank you Tarena." Malorin upturned the globe and a strange twilight effect took over the miniature abbey inside, bringing a small scene to life inside. It gave Malorin a content smile to see the magical diorama unfold before her and eventually she put the globe down. "Gretel there's another one for you."

"More?" The troll slumped off her chair a little trying to reach the present Malorin was edging towards her. Finally she managed to get her hands on the gift and briskly unwrapped it. "Oh thank you Mal, I've needed one of these for ages." Gretel tenderly inspected the satchel, which was specially designed for holding various spices and herbs as well as the implements needed to use them.

"So there's one present left, who's it for?" Annora asked before Nunu got up and bolted to where Tarena had left her previous clothes. Somehow with Nunu it seemed slightly less impossible that she managed to then jump out of her armour and into the Miss Clause costume in the blink of an eye before scampering out the door. "Okay… well does anyone know what this present is doing here?"

"How about we just all open it?" Tarena asked after a short silence. So they all moved the present in between them, took hold of the wrapping and pulled. All that was inside, other than a huge amount of streamers that leapt out of their own accord, was a piece of paper that said 'downstairs' in a multitude of writing styles and languages, several of which no one in the room could read.

"You know… I really wasn't expecting Nunu to get us anything." Malorin admitted as she climbed to her feet. "Shall we?"


	15. And a Happy New Year

The more perceptive of you may have noticed that this story is a little late past my weekly update quota... Thats because all my reviewers disapeared and with them my motivation. You only got this one because i thought of something i had to write down... unfortunantly for me that is still a little away so i'ma have to write more stories just to get to that... no guarentees on when they'll be done though. I'll probably just forget about them to... in short i'll resue weekly updates when i have reviewers again.

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The whole of the downstairs area had been decked heavily with various seasonal ornaments, most of which where garishly overdone. Even though their room had a tree of its own, an even larger one was downstairs and it had an enormous present that had been meticulously wrapped in an unmistakable style but with extraordinary grace. Nunu could be seen leaping around the room and its scant few patrons in her stolen costume. Soon the place would be flooded with revellers for the day's calibrations and several waitresses hurried around busily setting out chairs and tables as well as removing anything particularly breakable.

"This way! This way! This way!" The elf yelled as she bolted over the top of one of the waitresses and towards the tree.

"Nunu, we are going to get dressed first, we'll be back down in a minuet." Malorin announced with a glance at Gretel, who was sheepishly creeping along the second floor balcony in her dressing gown.

"But Nunu can't wait a minuet!" She was hopping from foot to foot impatiently.

"Tarena, entertain Nunu we'll be right back." Annora added as she began the short trip back to her usual clothes.

"Okay let's go my pet." The warlock sauntered down the stairs followed closely by her succubus. At the base of the stairs Nunu had perched herself on the banister in the same way a cat would have and eyed them in a similar suspicious manner.

"So girl, how did you like this place, I think it was worth every copper I spent getting us in." Tarena asked to no response as Nunu was staring at the succubus in an unsavoury manner. Then the night elf gently prodded her several times in the tit, much to the confusion of all concerned.

"I like your squishies, you wanna swap?" Nunu asked in a tone to serious for anyone's liking.

"I don't think its really possible for us to swap breasts…"

"Don't be silly, you just grab something sharp…" Nunu attempted to reach for her sword but merely groped at the air where its hilt usually was.

"Nunu you can't have her boobs, your breastplate wouldn't fit anymore." Tarena tried to think along the lines of what passed as Nunu's logic.

"I'd take it off then…" Nunu replied as though the answer was so obvious the question hadn't been worth dreaming up in the first place, still blindly feeling around for her weapon.

"Of corse…" Tarena desperately tried to think up another excuse not to have the surgery performed before Nunu found something sharp enough to break skin.

"How about…' The succubus finally came out of her slight bout of shock over the initial question. "I keep them and I just let you touch them every now and then?"

"But I want them on me1' Nunu pleaded, completely unaware that every male in the room was listening eagerly to the conversation.

"Nunu… uh… twenty three times forty two?" Tarena burst out in her continued attempts to distract the elf.

"One thousand one hundred and thirty four" She replied almost before Tarena had finished speaking.

"Seventh even prime number?" The succubus tried and Nunu leant forward for a second as though she where about to answer, but then withdrew. Slowly her smiled disappeared into deep thought over this conundrum and the warlock grabed her pet and they sunk away towards the tree with Nunu starting to take notes on her fingertips. She reached the third finger before shaking her hand and then starting again.

"So do you think this big one is for us?" Tarena asked softly as she ran her hands along the edge of the box that was almost up to her shoulder and longer than she was tall..

"I'm sure it will get some interesting reactions."

"Hmmm? Me thinks you know what's inside?" She leant over on side of the present and attempted to guess the succubus' thoughts.

"And you don't?" The demon casually pulled a chair nearer the tree, to the slight chagrin of the waitress who had just put the chair back at a table.

"I don't see how our second sight would allow us to look through the box, it only picks up auras." Tarena watched the succubus as it faced the chairs back towards the tree and straddled it. "Hey I've bee wondering… can you actually fly? Because if not those wings seem really inconvenient."

"Can I fly…" She asked herself as though that information wasn't ready at a moments notice. "No, but I can glide very well. Regardless the content of the box has no relevance to our second sight, simple deduction over what would actually be that size, weight, shape and smell is enough."

"Smell eh?" Tarena pressed her face up against the corner of the present and sniffed several times. "Nope… can only smell the tree."

"Hey Tarena why you smelling the present?" Annora suddenly interrupted as she leapt over the second floor railing, clad in her usual leathers. Malorin and Gretel however both preferred to use the stairs. Malorin gave Nunu a odd glance as they passed her, as the elf was still struggling with the conundrum

"Tarena what did you do to Nunu?" She asked wandering over towards the tree.

"She's trying to figure out what the seventh even prime number is." The succubus directed their attention towards the person who was still perched on top of the banister half way down the stairs.

"Oh cheesecake I glade you come!" She yelped from her position at the metallic critter scampering down the stairs. 'What, a trick question?" Nunu gasped after a short pause with her creation looking at her. "Why 'ould she ask a question that didn't have an answer?" The elf continued, reminding everyone just how painful it could be to listen to her speak. "I don't know…" Nunu shifted instantly to an almost melodic tone. "Presents? Where? Do I get one?"

"I never figured it out, does the squirrel actually speak or does she hear voices?" Annora pondered aloud as they watched the critter scamper onto the banister and offer Nunu a piece of lit it had found. The elf snatched it up and gave the ball of fluff a sniff before sneezing hard enough to push her off the banister and onto the floor a half story beneath her.

"I bet you a gold the squirrel speaks." Tarena suggested as Nunu clambered off the ground and scampered over towards them, swiftly followed by Cheesecake.

"Well I'd take that bet if there where anyway to prove a winner."

"Presents, presents, presents, presents, presents, presents!" Nunu yelled as she grabbed various chairs and forced people into them, most of whom where her friends.

"Alright Nunu show us what you got." Annora readied herself to be unimpressed as the elf positioned herself behind the present. With a single flick of the wrist Nunu flung the entire wrapping across the room to revel a massive painting.

There they all where in the painting, holding the forces of darkness at bay. Weapons brandished in fearsome looking stances against various entities to dark to make out clearly. Even Cheesecake held a blade against these creatures and the level of detail was exquisite. Every stray hair and piece of embroidery was delicately brought to life in paint. Somehow over the corse of the night this elf had managed to create this colossal work of art.

"Fuck." Said Annora.

"Holy shit." Said Tarena.

"Olgn." Said Gretel.

The only people who managed to remain silent where the succubus who was expecting this, although still looked a little shaken and Malorin, who through sheer discipline didn't sware when surprised. "I drew you a picture!" Nunu proudly exclaimed jabbing her thumb into her chest and with a smile that many would consider as actually wider than her face.

"This is fantastic!" Gretel pulled herself out of the chair ad crawled on her hands and knees towards the painting to examine herself. "You look so beautiful." She placed her hand and gently brushed her hand over the section where the paint depicted a woman holding her daggers out and ready for combat.

"Well then it's just like real life then…" Annora moved forward and leant a hand on the trolls back to support her. "But are my boobs that big?"

"No…" Tarena fell heavily onto Annora's back and Gretel began to struggle with the combined weight. "I'd call this a slight understatement." She finished while attempting to reach around and grope the woman but found her hands easily swatted away.

"Nunu this really is an incredible painting." Malorin got out of her chair and wandered over towards the elf who was still grinning happily. "I hate to be the voice of reason but…" She gave the stack of people a slight shove to the side and they all toppled over together. "Where are we going to put it?'

"I'm gonna…" Nunu began loudly as two of the three girls who fell over began to get angry at the third for clutching onto them for dear life in a place they'd rather not be clutched onto for dear life, especially when dear life was an enormous 2 foot fall into a rug.

"You are not going to carry it around with us."

"Oh…" Nunu looked a little disappointed. "We could put it in my house!"

"You don't have a house."

"Oh…" Once again Nunu looked a bit disappointed. "We could put it in her house!" She spun around and flung an outstretched arm in Tarena's direction, who was currently being wrestled into submission by Gretel and Annora.

"Help me my pet!" Tarena squealed from underneath the two women.

"Tarena do you have a house?" Malorin nonchalantly asked the struggling elf.

"My family disowned me because I'm such a slut." She giggled while managing to free her hand from Gretel's inferior grasp and brought it directly across to Annora's hip in a attempt to push her off, however it possibly accidentally collected an open section of the trolls mildly modest top and took the whole thing with it.

"How is that not surprising… Tarena stop trying to touch people." Malorin calmly returned her gaze back to Nunu, who was getting jittery and looking for an opportunity to jump into the fray.

"I've been a bad girl, you should spank me." Tarena continued her gigglish talking style with half an eye on Gretel who only just realised what happened and was beginning to recoil in horror.

"What about Mal?' Nunu stammered in her distraction as the troll flung herself upright and wrapped her arms around her chest with a squeal.

"I suppose we could send it back to Stormwind…" Malorin watched the slight drama as Gretel ran off to their room upstairs. Annora finally decided the depraved elf had gone to far and jabbed her in the kidney before snatching the cloth off her hand and bolting after the troll.

"Ugh… that was so… worth it." Tarena gasped between breaths as she writhed around on the floor.

"I'm sure all the other patrons thought so to." The succubus sarcastically added.

"Make sure your mistress apologises to Gretel." Malorin calmly said as she walked by. "I'm going to organise this being put somewhere safe. Nunu…" She turned around to see the night elf still a bit jittery. "There going to be organising a party in here so until I call you go outside and play."

"Forgive my late arrival my liege." savant calmly announced to the person patiently waiting on a snow covered hill just outside of town.


	16. The Sorrow of her Convictions

Hmmm... another shorter length story... although with the time between these two i dont think anyone will complain. Oh and if you do i can find out where you live... not realy... or can i? Anyway i've seen shorter chapters. One of the chapters in hitchikers guide to the universe is seven words long!

* * *

Malorin leant up against the side of the tree and buried her face in her hands. Tears where streaming down her face and her eyes had gone red from the crying. _'What mother think of me? All this time spent adventuring… wandering around the world… and for what reason? I have no grand quest… I haven't been fighting evil…'_

She leant forward and her mouth opened itself involuntarily as though she where screaming. _'Why am I even out here?'_ Her fingers shuddered over her lips. _'Annora… come ba…'_ She stopped for a moment, her lips quivering under the shield of her palms.

"I hate you!" Malorin screamed out into the night air with a ferocity that almost shook the sky. Her words shocked herself, right to her very core. They sapped all her strength until she couldn't support herself any more and she fell onto her hands and knees.

_'Why?'_ The thought echoed around her head, bouncing off the side of her skull unanswered.

"Why" She sobbed into the dirt, her voice spluttering along with the free flowing tears.

"I hate you…" The words kept wrenching at her heart.

"I hate you all…" Every time she went to breathe her whole body convulsed with the effort, almost as though it wanted to stop.

_'I hate you all so much…'_ Like her body knew that the only way to stop the pain was to give up.

_'I hate you…'_ Have the heart in her chest stop beating.

"You where…" Allow her lungs to stop breathing.

"My friends…" Let go of the glimmer of magic.

"And…"

_'I loved you…'_ And succumb to the gentle embrace of death.

"Mal?" A gentle voice called out in a sweet whisper that could barely be heard over the sobbing woman.

"Go away!" Malorin barely had the endurance to talk anymore. "I… I hate… you…" Even as she spoke her limbs attempted to claw their way off the ground but her heart wasn't in it, she stayed sprawled over on her knees with her face resting on the ground.

"Malorin what's wrong?" The voice placed a sturdy hand on her shoulder. Like a blow to the chest it knocked the wind out of the paladin and she spun her head around to see the obscenely garish smile of Nunu.

"Nunu!" Malorin snapped into motion, clamping her arms around the elf.

"Whaaa!" Nunu squealed in her trademark, multi-faceted tone as she was caught in the surprise hug.

"Oh Nunu…" Malorin gave a relieved sigh through the tears into her friend's ear, even though she was flailing her limbs around like an upturned tortoise in an attempt to escape the cast iron hold.

"Sneak!" The elf actually said as she slipped out of Malorin's grip and bound half a step away before planting herself on the ground. 'Nunu woke up and everyone was sad…" Nunu's voice was more constant that normal and lacked most of its usual coarseness. "But Mal seemed extra unhappy so I'm still here…"

"Thank you Nunu…" Malorin stoped crying and even managed to put on a smile as she crawled back over to the tree and sat down against it.

"Everything oky-doky?"

"Everything's oky-doky…" Malorin relaxed and let her eyes shut for a short while. "Nunu?" The elf nodded fervently. "Do you…want to play with me?" Her tone was calm, almost disinterested and she looked off to the side unable to endure a response. The elf continued to nod and eventually crawled over on to the woman and licked up the side of her face.

"Mmmm… you taste like candles." Nunu said after some thought. "Good candles though, not stupid orc candles." The elf continued as she laid her head and hands on Malorin's chest. Unlike her usual self, she just lay there, slowly stroking the breasts through the heavy silk undershirt. The pair of them didn't move for quite some time, with Malorin lost in her thoughts and clutching onto the unusually passive elf.

"Mal?" Nunu lifted her head up to look at the woman who was still staring off into the distant horizon of an almost dawn. "Don't you want to play with me to?" The elf looked a little saddened about the lack of attention she was getting and put on her best puppy dog face. Without warning Malorin placed one hand through the silvery strand of Nunu's hair, leant forward and pressed their lips together.

From all Nunu knew about Malorin, she knew that this shouldn't be happening. Malorin hated this game, even when other people played it. Maybe it's because she wasn't very good at it that she didn't like it or maybe she was still sad? Nunu had been trying to be good and it must have helped a bit but things still weren't right and she was all out of ideas.

"I'm going to go back to Stormwind when the sun rises…" Malorin quietly whispered as they parted. "Will… you come with me?"

"Nunu's coming even if you hadn't asked."

"Thank you Nunu… We'll play more when we get home…"


	17. And His Name is Ding

I've got plenty of excuses for not updating sooner... but its incredible what the gratification that one review can bing allows people to accomplish. also it conveniantly allows me to take the easy way out and make a scapegoat of my readers.

* * *

"So what was it you wanted to talk to me about?" Gretel quietly asked as Tarena sat down on a log in a small clearing away from their camp.

Tarena turned a caring smile towards the concerned troll. "Gretel…" She said softly before reconsidering her tone. "Has your arm gotten better yet, heya?" Returning to her usual exuberance.

"It's gotten a little better." Gretel raised her left arm and flexed the few digits at its end. "There is a little tingling at the tips now." There was a silence for a short while, each person not really willing to look at anything other than the ground.

"That's a lie isn't it?" Tarena had returned to her previous, soothing tone. The troll began looking even more uneasy as this fact struck her in the head. "It's not going to get better Gretel…"

"What?" She stammered. "But this morning you said…"

"I lied."

"But then…" Gretel started again before stoping short. "But then that means you know what's wrong with me."

"Yes I do, only I've been debating with myself as to whether I should tell you or not." Tarena tried to keep herself from looking at the worried girl and just stared at a stick she shoved around with her foot.

"If you know what's wrong with me say something." She threw her arm out in front of her and almost struck the unflinching elf in the face.

"I can't Gretel… but if you promise not to tell anyone I can fix you." Tarena turned to look into her friends face before reaching out and tenderly grasping the unfeeling hand between her fingers.

"No I want to know!" The troll almost yelled, unafraid of attracting attention from their other three friends.

"My friend… I cannot take away your innocence…" There was a short pause as a confused Gretel pondered the meaning of these words.

Tarena gently fondled the blue green hand, pulling it closer and brushing her cheek against the smooth skin. The troll was stunned out of the ability to move. A flash of pale skin shot through her field of vision and dug into her arm. There was a gut-wrenching crack as one of the bones in her wrist snapped while Tarena's iron grasp ripped a chunk of Gretel's arm off its body. The elf held out its blood drenched hand and shut its eyes as violet bolts of energy arced across the flesh.

Gretel looked on in horror as the part of her took on an eerie glow that pulsed in and out, almost as though it had a heart of its own that was beating away. But there was something there; it wasn't the flesh that was being brought back to life. She saw it then.

Inside her all this time there had been a crystal shard and when she had been stabbed the shard had cracked. This injury and her strange symptom made sense now. There must be a dozen of them scattered throughout her body, glowing with magic… keeping her alive. But then what was she?

"Hey your awake." Tarena excitedly said as Gretel lifted her head out of the elven lap.

"What happened?"

Tarena pushed Gretel's head back down to rest in her lap a little more. "We were talking and you fell asleep."

Gretel knew it was a lie, but she wanted it to be true so badly she believed it. Her eyes flicked shut for a second more, she could feel the warmth of Tarena's skin through the flimsy material of her skirt. Normally she'd be concerned with her friends womanising tendencies however she more wanted to just feel another person close to her. Someone kind enough to lie. A rustling in the bushes caused them both to snap their attention into the underbrush. From behind the curtain of foliage emerged a troll leading his raptor by the reins, who hadn't seemed to notice the two.

"Good breakfast!" Tarena blurted out in trollish.

Ding had been travelling for days and when he finally got to the forest he had to dismount his raptor and lead it through the trees by foot. Even though he'd grown up in places like this he still hated them. To many things moved and it was hard to acclimatise, attacks could be waiting behind every bush, tree or log. Forests where rife with threats and although most of them where no real harm to a seasoned veteran like himself, letting your guard down was a recipe for disaster. However of all the encounters he kept an eye out for the last thing he was expecting was to bump into a troll with her head in a blood elf's lap.

"Ummm… hello?" He slowly eased the guard he'd leapt into a little.

"mmm… Now what's a nice boy like you doing in a dark forest like this?" Tarena said in the verbal equivalent of licking her lips. "Heya?"

"So Nunu, what are they talking about?" Malorin calmly asked with reference to the three people gibbering on in trollish.

"Yeah they've been talking for hours, also ask what's for dinner?" Annora added with a slight grumble of her stomach for emphasis.

"It's playing tricky…" Even Nunu seemed to strain at this new task. "The white one… she likes to kissy kissy." She clicked her repeatedly fingers in the direction the talking trio.

"Tarena."

"Yeah that one…" The night elf looked a little overwhelmed as a fresh barrage of stray trollish floated across the clearing. "Perfect grammar bad vocable."

"Look who's talking." Annora said before being slapped on the back hard enough knock her face down into the dirt by a laughing Nunu.

"That's a good one 'Nora, but anyway…" Her voice leaped about like a playing kitten. "Miss Kissy Kissy wants to dance and or play and or kissy kissy with the blue one and or the green one."

"Wow…it took you that long to figure out Tarena wants to jump anything with two legs." Annora picked herself up off the ground and began to brush the dust off.

"Aye…but the blue one wants to dance with the green one."

"Can you just clarify for me which one is the blue one and which is the green one, they're both a blue green to me." Malorin asked without taking her eyes off the noisy preparation of dinner.

"The green one is ma troll!" Nunu threw her arms into the air and everyone looked at her. "Shhh!" She continued, thrusting her face into Malorin's with her finger pressed against her lips. "There gonna hear you Mal. Anyway the green one wants to kissy kissy the blue one but doesn't think she wants to."

"This is hopeless Mal." Annora waved the succubus over from where she was gently patting Ding's raptor. "You can understand them right?"

"No, no, no, no, no." Nunu threw her arms around Annora's head and clutched it tightly into her chest. "Go away I can do it!" The succubus didn't really seem to care and just sat back down and rested its shoulder against the beast, which clearly enjoyed the attention.

"Now, they're talking about All the changes to Sen Jin village since… Gretel left. Apparently its pretty much the same although Ding doesn't know if anyone has forgotten about her because he didn't know to ask. Now they're talking about if he has ever heard of a person known as genius... Ah that tickles 'Nora!" Nunu began to giggle as Annora pushed against her grasp.

"Ah my face!" She squealed as the grip broke.

"What is it little 'Nora?"

"You where crushing my had against your armour wench!" Nunu looked at herself to see that she had in fact been holding her friend against the lone plate of mythril that held her modest breasts in.

"Oh I'm sorry 'Nora…" The worried elf grabbed Annora's head and gave her a quick peck on the nose. "It is better now?"

"If you guys are done touching each other over there dinners ready."

"So what do you think of our little Gretel?" Tarena quietly asked Ding as they sat in front of the fire. Ding grunted. "Hmmm." She contently purred. "She is cute, so shy and innocent but with a voluptuous yearning for acceptance. A less moral person could take advantage of that." The elf pressed her shoulder up against Ding, which nudged Gretel off his other shoulder, who slumped into his lap, completely asleep.

"So vulnerable…" Tarena moved her hand into Gretel's hair and tenderly stroked through the crimson strands. "Perhaps she has even exposed herself willingly. Unable to grant you herself consciously she still yearns for your love." Slowly her hand began to creep down the girl's face and over her breast, gently massaging it through the linin of her top. Even in her sleep Gretel winced but she didn't awake.

"She yearns for you in the same way you do for her." Ding remained motionless and silent, calmly trying to maintain his composure as the elf shamelessly grasped her trollish friends breast in his lap. "Will you take advantage of her generosity?" Tarena lifted hand and hovered it over Gretel's chest. He didn't move. Gretel let out a slight gasp as Tarena grasped her flesh roughly, waiting for Ding to move his hand the last inch himself.

"Or perhaps she has just fallen asleep?" And with that Tarena withdrew her hands leaving Ding's fingers alone, hovering above the breast. Slowly he withdrew, gradually lifting her up and sliding out from underneath the girl and standing up. The elf leaned back into his leg with a sly grin across her face. "And now we have Ding…"

"He is so strong and silent. Suffering quietly as I flaunt his desires in front of him." She continued. "Only the two of us are awake, even the demon requires sleep, but is that the only demon here? He denies it but the lust courses through his veins, tingling every extremity, making his heart pound in his chest so hard he thinks it might deafen him." She leaned on him a little harder. "There are other girls here as well, ones that have already been defiled. Prettier girls who sleep but meters away, and the only witness presses him to sate his desires."

Tarena felt Ding move, a trollish two-fingered hand crept over her chest. "Will he pretend I'm her? Can he? I am a lithe, poorly endowed whore… the girl he thinks of is a pure, voluptuous angel." Tarena continued her monologue as his hand wormed its way inside her low cut dress and clutched onto her breast and its partner clamped across her mouth.

"Has anyone ever told you, Tarena." Ding spitefully said. "You talk to much."


	18. From Azeroth to Kalimdor

Heya another chapter, lucky you. see what happens when you review? hmmm good stuff coming, and my assignments are almost all done so good times and i be hoping you keep reviewing so i can write more. that goes for all you lurkers to.

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Annora quietly gazed over the side of the ship, into the ocean. The deep blue almost threatened to swallow her whole, although the thought seemed more comforting than anything else for some reason. This was there third day at sea and things had been mostly calm and plenty of clear skies. She took a moment to reflect that everything here was blue, the entire sky and ocean was like a seamless sapphire casing. The only thing out of place was this wooden ship. One of the sailors brushed past her, he had the smell of the unwashed on him and had clearly been doing intense physical labour for days.

She loved that smell, even though it's simultaneous repulsiveness made her wince. It was the smell of a person who wasn't afraid to risk their life for a living, which can only be appreciated by someone who does the same. Part of it was a measure of respect for the battle, against evil or the elements, but the rest was all physical. Every time Annora had risked her life she came out feeling great and sweating the passionate sweat of battle.

Slowly Annora let out a long sigh of longing. Its not that she missed it or regretted the lack of it but it had been a long while since she'd had anyone between her legs. That's one of the changes she'd made for Malorin and in exchange she gets to be a hero. _'Hmmm… Malorin…'_ She pondered and slumped a little further over the side.

'_Is it because she's so noble… am I ashamed of what I was?'_ Her eyes darted across the horizon, for a second she thought she saw a bird but it disappeared as fast as it flickered into existence. _'I haven't drunk much ever since Goldshire… I wonder why she was there? Maybe she just had her own problems that she had to drown… I don't know.'_

'_I wonder if she's still a virgin, she might be a paladin but she's also engaged so I suppose anything is possible. It would have been young though. Not that she doesn't have her own charm but she doesn't really have the kind of looks that people would chase her that far for, so I wonder what happened with her and… Janus…' _The name even made her shiver. Everything she had done turned out to be a mistake and if there was anything she regretted in her whole life it was that night.

'_Not that I can blame her for it, I still wish she had been there so I didn't do something so… so weak.'_ She buried her face in where she had rested her arms on the railing. _'I wonder if Malorin's a virgin if that was his first time to? Why did he know who I was… as inhuman as he is he can't know everyone. What makes me so special? Maybe… I'm a famous beauty.' _The thought brought a smile to her face. _'Pride of Stormwind, Annora the Stunning!'_ She burst out laughing for a second.

"Someone's having a good time." Malorin giggled as she took a place next to her friend.

"Hey Mal…" Annora was knocked out of her fantasy. "Can I ask you something?"

"Mmmm… No." Malorin giggled slightly with her eyes switching from the horizon to Annora.

Annora smiled. "How did you fall in love with Janus?"

"Oh…" She sounded disappointed, rolled over so her back was to the sea and her gaze was cast across the deck. "A very, very long time ago now… I was just a little girl in a monastery. I had friends sure, but there was one boy who was always playing tricks on people. He was devilishly smart even back then." Malorin's tone was wistful with the nostalgia. "But every time he tricked me I would beat him up, despite him being older than me. I was the only kid who wasn't afraid I guess."

"Sounds like the manliest of men…" Annora joked.

"All that tension though, when I was ten he came with a piece offering. A dazzling fabric flower, I'd forgotten about it until now actually. I guess I've just wanted to forget all about him…" She paused for a short while, filing this memory away where it would get easily lost again. "All of a sudden we were inseparable."

"And now the punch line."

"We got engaged when I was thirteen… do you know how it feels to be in love Annora?"

"Maybe." She said in a sly voice.

"Well then I'll spare you the details…" Malorin leant her head back and let it swing towards Annora. "I don't know what happened though, I fell out of love."

"Well at least you never had sex with him, that just feels weird." Annora joked with a slight shove of her shoulder into her friend.

"I'm glad you're around to test the water for me." Malorin filed the rest of her memories about Janus back where she kept them, far away from her normal mind. Annora leaned her shoulder up against Malorin's.

'_Have I ever been in love?'_ Annora thought as she concentrated on the feelings in her arm. The softness of her friends flesh through the layers of their clothes. The warmth from the blood gently flowing though the veins. _'Malorin does everything gently…'_

"How is Nunu doing?" Annora asked after a while, pressing herself against her fried a little harder.

"Gretels watching over her, but she hasn't improved."

"I never thought she'd be afraid of anything, but to see the mighty Nunu cower before an ocean..." She let go of some of her leaning, shut her eyes and almost whispered. "And the other two?"

Malorin smiled.

Nunu was folded herself into a ball, the images came fast and hurtled through her head. She floated in an endless emerald sea, days past in her mind every moment. _'No!'_ she screamed inside her head. _'Come back!'_ Even through the water she could feel the tears streaming down her blood stained face. _'I don't wanna to be alone!'_ she pleaded with the elements.

Gretel gently ran her hands through the tortured elf's silver hair. There was nothing she could do to ease her friends suffering. _'Wait… maybe there is…'_ Her mind wandered back to the cave, when she had caused so much suffering. She had felt all their pain and anguish and magnified it and forced it back on them. Gretel placed her hand on the elf's forehead and tried to think back. She'd never tried to invade another persons mind but Nunu's almost leapt into her, like bare consciousness with all its defences striped away. Then she was there and Nunu's immaterial dream snapped into reality for them both.

Gretel saw her friend floating face down in the water from her vantage several feet above the liquid surface, Nunu must have been in the navy. Inside her head Nunu was screaming for help, but her body couldn't move. She was covered in wounds, with a trail of thick red blood seeping into the distance. Gretel reached down towards the elf, yet ass soon as feeling the heat of flesh writhing beneath her fingertips a cacophony thrust itself into her mind.

'_Why?'_

'_I don't want to be alone!'_

'_It hurts so much…'_

'_I'm so scared!'_

'_Why has everybody left me alone?'_

'_I… I can't move my arms…'_

'_Its so dark.'_

'_I'm afraid.'_

'Please…' 

The voices built up upon each other to a deafening roar. It was so loud Gretel let out a blood-curdling scream. Nunu twitched and then she had washed up on a beach. The troll knelt down next to her friend, picked her up and hugged her tightly against her chest. Slowly the silvery lights of Nunu's eyes opened. She went to say something but her mouth just slumped open and refused to move any more. Instead her hand raised itself off the ground and despite her wrist being broken to almost a right angle Nunu managed to tenderly stroke the side of Gretel's face, streaking it with blood.

Gretel recoiled with the wetness touching her cheek, letting the body she clutched drop to the ground. A fresh barrage of doubts impacted onto Gretel's mind and pushed her to the ground. And then they where in Darnassus. Nunu was healed and training with the Sentinels. Even among her own kind she was a giant and she fought with all the same passion that she did nowadays, but compared to her kin the colour had been washed out of her. She was a warrior of immeasurable strength and skill, but stuck in tones of grey.

Even with her defeating the finest guards of the city Gretel could hear the doubts echoing inside the elf's mind. Nunu talked and acted her usual self, discussing whatever came to mind in her usual grinding voice and cycling tones yet her thoughts never stopped. _'Is that what it's like to be Nunu, is she always so brave just to prove she doesn't have to be afraid?'_

"Enough!" a voice boomed out in the phantom city. Nunu ground to a halt and turned to look at its owner.

And then Gretel knew why Nunu fought so hard. In that instant the voices stoped, overpowered by the order. If she could find something powerful enough it would silence the voices, and perhaps they would stay silent forever. And then the dream was over. They where back in the ships cabin, the elf still clutching herself and shivering in fear.

"I'm so sorry Nunu, I never knew you lived in such pain…"


	19. My Sisters

"No, no, no…" Gretel insisted from the sidelines despite a look of longing on her face.

"Come on you where the one who told us about this place." Annora sat with her arms outstretched across where she rested her back, thrusting her chest out somewhat inadvertently.

"Please…" The troll continued to insist while trying, and mostly failing, to avert her eyes.

"Oh isn't that cute, she's shy…" Tarena took a short glimpse at Gretel for emphasis before quickly returning her gaze to the equally emphasised breasts.

"Come on you two your not helping…" Malorin interjected with a sternish look on her face. "Gretel if you want to stay out that's fine but if you want to come in you can hide behind me."

"But…" She replied weakly.

"Now, now Gretel." Malorin climbed out of the water and went over to her pack, with Tarena's eyes snapping onto her unclad form over Annora's ample chest.

"See Annora your damn sexy…" Tarena paused allowing for the sexy lady to give her a slight nod of approval. "But how are you going to compare to that forbidden fruit?"

"Well Mal might have the fine pear shaped ass but I actually put out."

"Exactly, I can have you any time I want…" Annora gave a slight giggle over this untruth. "So if I have the chance to get with either of you who do you think I'll pick?" Tarena was still staring at Malorin, who's dripping body was knelt on front of her pack and had almost finished pulling something out.

"Ah but what about Gretel? She refuses, unlike the arousingly naked Mal, to even let you get a peek so I thought your choices would include her." Annora raised her eyebrow at the slightly distracted elf.

"Well I might not be able to see the unclad image to often but I do get to feel her up all the time." Tarena slyly commented as Gretel visibly recoiled from what was in her opinion a bad joke.

"Really?"

"Oh yes she's an incredibly sound sleeper, so every now and then I sneak a feel or two or several dozen and sometimes a peek for good measure." The elf explained as Annora craned her head around to gaze at the very disturbed and now bright red troll. "Mmmm, her breasts are so luscious I really do recommend it."

"I think I'll pass, that way she'll actually feel safe at night."

"What my mistress failed to mention is that she has me enchant her sleeping to make sure she wont be interrupted." The succubus added from her vantage sitting with her legs dangling either side of Tarena and her hands massaging the elven shoulders.

"Now Tarena that is just plain mean." Malorin finally picked up her blanket and unfolded it. "If that ever happens again I'll make sure you regret it."

"Sounds kinky."

"It will be very kinky when the next town gets told you have a virulent disease and everybody refuses to sleep with you." Malorin held her blanket up in front of Gretel as a shield between her and the bathers. "No ones looking now, so get undressed and hop in."

"Now who's being mean…" Tarena sounded annoyed but almost immediately turned back into herself. "But the charm never works on Malorin so I haven't laid a single hand on her yet, well except for that one time when I was pretending to be drunk in that tavern and then she hit me."

"Its almost like she's trying to tease us." Annora put on a smirk before Nunu erupted out of the centre of the water.

"Whaaa! I got 12 minutes!" She grinned proudly.

"Alright now see if you can beat that." Annora said in an overly excited voice and Nunu nodded several times before disappearing under the water again.

"But you're lucky because you get to sleep with her all the time." Tarena switched into her wistful tone and slumped forward, out of the grasp of her pet.

"Tarena you may find this hard to believe but Annora and I don't touch each other when we sleep together."

"… I don't understand, why not?" the elf had all of a sudden become very confused.

"Uh… you see Tarena…" Annora switched her voice out of the previous playful tone and leant forward to accommodate this more sensible topic. "I've gotten with tons of women before, some of them where even paying me for it. I'd even say that most of them where better than the men, but even though its loads of fun I don't want to do it as often as I can."

"But that doesn't explain why you don't feel up angel thighs." Tarena pondered as she noticed Malorin take a peek over the blanket into where Gretel must have been at least partially unclothed. "Or should I say miss peeping tom."

"I don't… I don't mind when Mal looks, because unlike evil people like you she's checking if I'm done yet and not…" Gretel shyly tried to explain as she removed the last of her clothes."

"What do I have to do to get that kind of respect?" Tarena interrupted.

"Go back in time and stop yourself from having sex or making out with anyone and stop every war ever."

"Anyway you're are as close to family as the people back at the monetary. When I was growing up we just took bathes together, so I don't care what my sisters see of me and I don't care what I see of you."

"Thank you Malorin." Gretel seemed touched by being called a sister and she hugged Malorin through the blanket.

"Mal, you've got to take me with you next time we go back to Stormwind!" Tarena stood up and practically yelled.

"What?"

"A room full of hot, battle hardened, sweaty girls! Who wouldn't want to be a part of that?"

"Did you miss the part when I called them my sisters?" Malorin seemed taken aghast by this willingness to abuse the good faith of her childhood friends. Annora similarly rubbed the bridge of her nose in embarrassment.

"So?"

"Mal I think I just figured out another reason Tarena was expelled from her home." Annora was still rubbing the bridge of her nose. There was a short awkward silence before Nunu burst out of the water again.

She was gasping desperately for air. "I forgot to breath in…"

"Hey Nunu, Tarena was saying how much she wanted to kiss you." Gretel sheepishly ducked out from behind Malorin, still covered by the blanket. Nunu laughed briefly before jumping on the other elf. During the distraction, Gretel snuck quietly into the water, one arm over her chest and the other attaching her to Malorin.

It took a little while before Tarena managed to pry Nunu off her and the awkward silence resumed. No one was willing to risk conversation after the previous seriousness. After several minuets it was Nunu that broke the silence though.

"My troll is a better kisser than you." She blatantly let out, having gotten bored of not speaking. Everyone's jaw dropped, except for Nunu who was completely oblivious to everything. Another short silence followed.

"Uh… would you mind explaining that for me Gretel?" Tarena looked at the troll, who had already gone bright red and was still getting redder.

"I don't know what she's talking about."

Nunu let out a long, harsh laugh. "You must have forgotten because you where asleep."

More silence.

"Remember this is where we met!" Nunu was beginning to get worried that it might not actually have happened. "I made you Cheesecake…" She was almost crying. "You tasted like cactus apple…" Now she was crying.

"Nunu is many things Gretel but she's not a lire…" Annora said harshly trying to save the night elf's feelings.

Gretel got up, still covering her chest and wadded over to where Nunu was sitting and planted herself next to her, on the side further away from Tarena. She placed her free hand on Nunu's cheek, leant in and kissed her gently on the mouth. "Annora, sometimes sisters give each other a little kiss…" Gretel let her voice trail off, then leant over to Annora and calmly pressed their lips together, withdrawing just as smoothly.

"Where's my kiss?" Tarena pleaded.

"I'm sure you've taken plenty already." Gretel said annoyed, leaning up against Nunu who was crying less now. Then just to spite Tarena, Gretel waved the succubus over and pecked her on the lips.

"I do so hate to be left out of the crowd." Malorin got up and walked over to Gretel before receiving her small kiss. Then sat down in the middle of the group, leaving Tarena alone on the other side of the pool. There was another silence and once again it was Nunu who broke it.

"Your kissy, kissy was better when you used your tongue." Again everyone stopped moving completely. Then Gretel turned bright red again. Everyone was looking at Gretel.

"You almost got away with that, but unless I'm mistaken, Nunu is saying you two made out the first time you met and in this very place no less." Tarena was clearly enjoying her victory. "Come here my pet, I'm going to need lots of kissing practice so I can become better than Gretel." Gretel burst into tears.

The troll latched onto Malorin with both arms as tears streamed down her face. "I thought it was a dream Malorin…"

"I know… I know…" Malorin gently ran her arms down Gretel's back as Tarena stuck her tongue down her succubus' throat, as well as let her hands begin to wander. "I've been around Nunu long enough to see that she could be a dream."

"But… but I… I shouldn't…"

"Gretel don't worry about it… nobody is perfect." Malorin shot a worried glance at Annora, who was slightly amused by the irony of asking for forgiveness for sleeping with a woman, while burying ones head in breasts. "Not even me."

"Wait… hey Mal does that mean…" Annora quizzically asked, into Malorin's ear.

"What can I say, some women are just graceful." She smiled, and Annora smirked back. "Don't worry Gretel, its okay…"

Annora got up and walked over to where Tarena was attempting to choke her pet on her tongue. She reached on hand out in between the two and cupped the succubus' breast in her hand, gently massaging the flash through the silken bra. She gave a slight thought to how the succubus was the only one of them wearing anything at the moment, then stroked her fingers to where the nipple was underneath the smooth cloth and pinched slightly. She let her other hand creep down to the demons nethers and slowly rubbed the tender strip of loincloth.

The succubus let out a moan through the kissing, but sharply withdrew. Then she bolted. Tarena seemed disappointed and was about to go after her when Annora pinned her shoulders down. They looked into each other's eyes for a second. "And I thought Christmas only came once a year." Then they started kissing.

Nunu sat patiently waiting for something to happen that involved her. Her troll was crying in Malorins arms and Tarena had started playing with Annora, or was it the other way around? Nunu looked at Malorin, and in that instant their eyes had a conversation to lengthy for words.

"Gretel…" she started, gradually weakening the trolls grip on her. "Nunu's going to take care of you for a little…" Gretel didn't seem to pleased but Malorin took her arms and placed them around the elf, who summoned all the control she could and hugged the troll almost gently. Then she climbed out of the water and sat down by their packs. That was the most eventful bath she had had in a long while.

The succubus wandered back into sight and sat down next to Malorin, but didn't speak. Cheesecake had somehow managed to secure a seat riding in the demons cleavage, which gave Malorin a slight giggle. There was silence, Gretel had calmed down and was enjoying being held in Nunu's inescapable grasp, the noises from the less savoury groping between Annora and Tarena where absorbed by the water.

"Hey…" Malorin asked almost in a whisper.

"Yes?" The succubus answered.

"What's it like…" Malorin reached over and gently patted Cheesecake on the head. "To make love?" The succubus didn't respond.

Her hand sunk a little and hovered slightly above the demons breast. As time went by Malorin's mind started to give way, moving closer and closer and the instant before contact. "Stop Malorin." The succubus whispered. "This is not the path you chose."

Malorin withdrew, slowly hanging her head. "Your right… thank you…"


	20. Invincible

"Go!" Nunu's squeal echoed throughout the tunnel.

"No Nunu!" Annora reached out and tried to grab the elf but she shrugged the hand off violently.

"I said go!" Nunu yelled back at the five others.

"She'll hold them back..."

"But Gretel we cant just leave her!" Malorin pleaded with the troll as a sharp demonic cackle travelled out from deeper inside the cave.

Nunu glanced behind her briefly before lunging forward and landing her fist in Malorin's gut. Even through the plate mail it was a shocking blow.

"We're out of time, we have to move." Tarena calmly pointed out as she slid herself underneath the paladin who was in need of support.

"Run!" Nunu lunged out again and swung her blade in a clumsy arc through where Annora was before dodging. Gretel grabbed Annora by the arm and did her best to drag her away, closely followed by Tarena and Malorin. Only the succubus remained, whose stare was boring a hole through Nunu's forehead.

"Burn in hellfire…" She scowled before bolting after the rest of the group. Nunu turned to face the depths of the earthen tunnel, a ghostly glow emanated from their eerie bowels. She flexed her grip on the hilt of her sword, took a moment to steady herself. For the first time in months the voices where silent. It didn't matter what they said, she was doing this for her friends.

She opened her mouth to say something but realised with the upmost glee that she didn't have to. There where no voices to talk over, she just smiled and rested the end of her sword on the ground as the chittering of claws began to reach this part of the cave. A demonic creature, not 4 feet high but all claws and teeth darted out from around the corner, closely followed by an endless horde of similar beasts.

Time slowed down for Nunu, the monsters where closing at a fast walk and even as the first one leapt at her through the air it seemed as though she would be able to pluck it out of flight and throw it back at its friends. She leapt to meet it. Her body spiralled through the air and her blade flew with her, cleaving the creature in two down the length of its body.

She landed on a second and time returned to its normal pace. It was still moving but without a working back it wasn't much danger. Nunu's sword dug into the ground, taking a significant portion of the thirds face with it. Then with a flick of her wrist the sword was flying again and collected two more, slamming them into the wall. She leaped back, loosing a few yards of ground, and faced off with the slowed horde. It stared at her with scores of eyes and she didn't even bother staring back. Both sides charged. The wall of chittering teeth was split down the middle by the first strike, followed by a massive horizontal arc, splitting both wooden supports and dropping a log on the mass. They shrugged it off with pure numbers and a dozen leapt through the air into her only to be intercepted by the flat side of her blade.

Nunu spun in a full pirouette, letting her weight keep her sword moving. They where surrounding her and she couldn't slay them fast enough when they came from every angle. She leaped strait up and plunged her sword into the unsupported roof, pushed off one of the demons faces and flew backwards. The roof collapsed. Nunu cleaved into what stragglers that hadn't been crushed on her side and bolted for the entrance. She was faster than them and hopefully with the extra couple of minutes her sortie bought them her friends had made it out by now.

Then Nunu's heart sank; somehow there had been another cave in near the entrance. Her sword arced into the wall of dirt and promptly got stuck in it. She pulled it out and swung again with no difference in result.

"Looks like Nunu's doing this the hard way…" The elf said out loud, kind of excited by the challenge. She sat down while she was waiting for the demons to clear the obstacle she left them, reached into a pouch on her tasset and pulled out a stale biscuit Gretel had given her almost a month ago now. Nunu sunk her teeth into it even though it was like trying to eat a rock. She began to wish they would get here faster; sitting down by herself was boring.

Then there was an odd scratching noise that seemed to come from all around her. It sounded almost like burrowing. Nunu leaped to her feet, sword in hand and biscuit in mouth. The first on meet the jagged and of her sword as it tried to climb out of the dirt. Several more tried to pop out as well but met similar fates. Two more came from the ceiling but it was taking the monsters to long to break the surface and they could be easily stopped before they where ready. They where coming from all around her though and Nunu was beginning to have trouble gnawing on the biscuit and fighting at the same time.

She arced her sword up through several more that where coming through the roof, but the ground here had already had one cave in and it couldn't take the stress. Nunu leaped for safety but landed flat on her face, a claw jutting through the ground was latched onto her foot. Then the roof collapsed and a half-ton of rocks, dirt and gnashing demons landed on Nunu's leg. She plunged her sword into the ground above her trapped limb and attempted to leap out of her predicament. She almost dislocated her hip but she managed to get a little of herself out. One of the creatures surviving the collapse pulled itself out of the wall next to her, met swiftly by her clenched gauntlet.

Nunu grabbed the critter and thrust it on the ground next to her, doing her very best to pound its face into a bloody mulch before throwing the corps away. She tried to leap out of the rock again and this time her leg wrenched free. Although she couldn't stand properly any more on the badly mangled leg. It was covered in bruises and cuts and must have been broken in at least three places. A demon leaped at her from behind and Nunu pulled her blade out of the earth and swatted it out of mid flight, but stumbled back into the wall.

A sharp pain in her neck forced her to thrust herself off the wall, bringing that monster with her that had clamped it teeth into her flesh. Nunu squealed as she ripped the monster out of her neck, dropped it on the ground and planted her boot on its throat. But her other leg couldn't support her and she collapsed on the snapping monster. She put both hands in its moth and pulled in either direction, ripping the top of its head off before climbing back onto her feet and limping away. The chittering creatures seemed to have given up their chase, which pleased Nunu a bit but she started to get bored again. It was about then that it was made abundantly clear to Nunu that they had cleared her first cave in. A wall of muscle that brandished a sword that made even Nunu's paddle look small rounded the corner.

The demon thrust its blade forward and Nunu swung the flat side of her blade up to absorb the blow but still got pushed off her feet. She sprung to her feet as best she could and charged. The pain shooting up her leg was almost unbearable, yet until it was actually unbearable Nunu was invincible. It swung its sword from one side of the cave to the other but Nunu only needed one good leg to leap over it and plant her sword through the monsters head. It was strong and fast but it couldn't move properly in the cave.

As it fell she leaped in a back flip off its torso only to see another one behind it. These new monsters where invigorating, they didn't sneak up or try to trick her and most importantly they stopped moving when she put her sword in their heads. Nunu darted past the upwards swing of the next one in line, slashed his leg and ran up the torso of the one behind it. Her sword almost plunged itself into its face before she leaped off it and brought her blade half way through the previous ones neck.

There was one more closing and Nunu charged, and then fell sharply on the ground. A claw latched onto her boot again and she barely had enough time to roll onto her back and get her sword in front of her to block the muscular demons blade. She pushed against the flat side of her blade as hard as she could, barely able to match the monstrous strength. Nunu gave a great heave to tip her sword to one side and her enemy's steel slid off and dug into the ground. Then she threw her sword and it sliced through the air before planting itself with a thud just under its neck.

Nunu sat up strait and snapped the claw off at the ground, making its owner squeal underground. She limped across to the gurgling demon, placed a hand on her blade and twisted, ending its life promptly. Things where quiet for a little while and Nunu appreciated this short amount of rest. No more little chittery thing that played dirty and no more monsters stronger than her. But the next thing she remembered. When they had decided they couldn't win this fight it was when they saw him. They had done as much as they could but he was too strong for them. Nunu always did like a challenge though.

He meandered up the tunnel, more looking like a shambling mass of robes than anything else. Nunu stood to meet him and he thrust his arm out, firing a long, spike-ended chain at the elf. She parried and charged. She swung her sword in a massive arc, which abruptly stopped on contacting him. Underneath the robes there was solid metal, and as hard as she hit it did nothing more than push him back. She landed a flurry of blows to no effect other than pushing him around a little. He struck out with a fist and glanced her side. Nunu stumbled back but remained unphased.

He raised his arm again and a dozen chains shot out like snakes striking. Nunu raised her sword and blocked, sending the now lifeless chains scattering to the floor. She charged again.

"You are going to die…" A familiar voice announced quietly in her head. Nunu faltered and felt a pain in her gut. The instant she had flinched from the voice he had thrust a chain into her unprotected abdomen.

"You are going to die here and now…" It continued. Nunu was shocked, even through all this she had always survived, the thought that she might die had never even crossed her mind. Another volley chain was launched and half embedded themselves in the elf's steeled flesh. Nunu ripped them all out. She ripped the chians out of her flesh and ran.

The demon found her hiding in a corner in a growing pool of her own blood. He raised his arm and a chain tenderly reached out and wrapped itself around the sword and yanked it out of her grasp.

"Nunu, you are going to die!" The voice yelled at the hiding girl.

Nunu leaped forward in desperation. "I don't wanna…" There was a dull thunk as the demon thrust Nunu's sword through the front of her face, skewering her to the wall behind her. Her limbs kept twitching and her mouth kept trying to form that last word but it was no use. Nunu was dead.

* * *

Its been far to long since Nunu got her own story so i decided to write this one. take that upload times! man not having any more assignments is cool, but dont expect another quick update like this for a while, its a week or longer probly.


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